Nougat Candy Cake

This cake is made with soft nougat candy, a popular product that is very typical during Christmas time here in Spain.

There's a huge variety of nougat candies (hard nougat with almonds, chocolate and rice, filled with liquors...etc) but for this recipe you should use the soft one, what we call it 'Turrón de Jijona' or simply 'Turrón blando' (turrón is how we call nougat).

I baked this cake to take it as a breakfast for the 'Three Wise Men' day. Unlike other countries, in Spain we exchange the Christmas gifts on January 6th and wait for the Three Wise Men (or Magic Kings) to visit us; on the night of the 5th, instead of stockings, kids (and not so kids) leave their shoes out so that the Kings will leave behind gifts and candies. Those who have been naughty during the year get a bag of candy coal.

As you can see by the pics I didn't use confectioner's sugar to sift over the top of the cake but it was just because I ran out of it! :-p. I put some pine nuts instead and the cake looked quite cute anyway!

Click aquí para la receta en español!

Ingredients

(serves 6-8)

150g soft nougat candy.

3 eggs.

120g sugar.

1 yogurt.

230g wheat flour.

16g baking powder.

125ml olive oil.

100ml orange liquor.

3 tangerines.

confectioner's sugar.

Directions

Preheat oven to 180ºC.

Separate egg yolks and whites. Beat yolks with sugar in a bowl. Add in the oil and the yogurt and keep beating. Chop nougat candy in small chunks and add it to the batter.

Stir well flour and baking powder and sift it into the batter bowl.

Grate the tangerines and mix it well.

Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form and fold them carefully into the mixture.

Grease the cake mould with butter and flour and pour in the mixture; place in the oven for 45 minutes approximately.

Meanwhile, squeeze the tangerines and mix the juice with the orange liquor (I used just a small quantity of liquor). Using a food syringe, inject the citric mixture into the cake.

Decorate with confectioner's sugar or any desired ornament/frosting.