Orange & Pomegranate Mini Bundts

Financiers are a cheeky little French petit four. Traditionally, they are served in little gold bar shaped moulds, hence the name.

Done in 2 hours

Serves 8

Dish by Hugh Woodward

Ingredients

What you'll need:

100gpomegranate seeds

100mlsloe gin

100gunsalted butter

3egg whites

160gground almonds

60gplain flour

170gicing sugar

1 orange's worthorange zest

to dustmore icing sugar

These deliciously crispy, chewy yet light almond cakes are so easy and so delicious. I've given them a vaguely luxurious Christmas slant with the addition of orange zest and pomegranate seeds macerated in sloe gin.

Method

Soak the pomegranate seeds in the sloe gin for a few hours.

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Heat the butter in a small saucepan until it foams up and smells biscuity. Quickly decant it into a small bowl - the butter should be full of small nutty brown grains (the caramelised milk solids). Taste and set aside to cool.

Whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks.

In a separate bowl shift the flour, sugar and almonds. Gently fold this through the egg whites, along with the orange zest and the pomegranate seeds drained of the gin. Drink the gin.

Spoon the mixture into your moulds - if you don't have mini bundt tins thats fine, use a muffin tray.

Bake the cakes for 25 minutes. Let them cool in their tins for 5 minutes then turn them out and leave to cool on a wire rack. Dust them with icing sugar.

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Hugh Woodward

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Hugh's culinary life began aged 14 when he cooked spaghetti hoop burritos to impress girls. Since then his colourful career has taken him to performing in Skegness, making cheese in Peckham, running a wine bar on Columbia Road and reluctantly working in a (briefly) Michelin Starred restaurant. He likes fish, things cooked on charcoal, cheap dinners and London's rich cultural tapestry of food shops. When he's not cooking or eating he can be found mudlarking by the river Thames, buying bits in flea markets and hanging out with his cat Keith.