If Florentines are airs and graces, then Sultana cake is deception and trickery! Its name, so hopelessly dull and uninspiring, precedes its awkward, speckled exterior to make for a cake which, were first impressions always true, would easily be overlooked. The truth however is that sultana cake is quite the antithesis. Zesty orange and lemon flavours contrast with the plump, succulent sultanas which generously stud this sweet almond scented cake.
I think back to our trip to Otago, to the landscape, a patchwork of infinitesimal orange and brown’s above which float dusty, slate grey clouds in an ominous autumnal sky. This is the perfect setting in which to settle down, wrapped up against the cold, to enjoy a generous slice of this sultana cake, a cup of tea and the endless vistas that could only belong to Otago.