Orange almond cake with blackberry and yoghurt

Serves 12 and is ready in 1 hour 25 minutes, with about 1 hour of that being cooking time.

I tend not to be much of a dessert person. I much prefer salty to sweet. The idea for this cake came from two things:

1. Reading the Nigella Lawson cookbook ‘How to Eat’, which my friend Eliza kindly gave me for my birthday. (Although I have not used her recipe as I was afraid it would be too sugary for my taste.)
2. Walking in the beautiful English countryside as the blackberries were coming into season. I love being able to pick berries off the bush and eat them. ☺

I combined the two as I love how orange and blackberry tastes together.

Blackberries are particularly special as they really represent to me the English countryside in late summer/early autumn. The bushes grow in great big tumbles of long thorny arms and look like overgrown weeds that contrast so much to the fruit. Somehow the thorns seem to make the berries much more of a prize and taste sweeter.

The cake is surprisingly low-cal as it does not have flour or butter in it. It is also very, very moist. It was a big hit at the office.

The basic recipe is here: http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/14822/flourless+orange+cake

I made some important changes:

1. 1 tsp orange flower water – I added this to the syrup in step 7
2. 1 punnet blackberries – I added this to the syrup in step 7 and boil it for 10 mins, rather than 2-3
3. Olive oil – I used this instead of butter to grease the pan
4. Bake for 45 mins – I am not sure why but I found I needed to bake it for 15 mins less than what the recipe required
5. Greek yoghurt – I served it with Greek yoghurt on the side as I love the combination of fruit and yoghurt and it cuts the sweetness further