Preheat oven to 170°C and butter a 20cm springform cake pan.
Beat the butter and caster sugar in a bowl until pale and fluffy. Finely grate the zest of 1 orange, add to sweetened butter, and then gradually beat in egg yolks, followed by 2 tbsp flour and the dessert wine.
Lightly fold in half the ground almonds, followed by half the remaining flour. Fold in the remaining ground almonds, then the last half of the flour.
Whisk egg whites in a clean, dry bowl until they form firm peaks. Quickly and gently fold them into the cake mix in 2 batches, then spoon the mixture into the cake pan and place in the centre of the oven.
Bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Stand in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn out on a wire rack over a deep-rimmed plate.
Meanwhile, using a potato peeler, finely pare the zest of the lemon and the remaining half orange. Put the zest, sugar, chillies and 100ml water into a small saucepan. Place over a low heat to dissolve the sugar, then simmer gently for 5 minutes. Cover, remove from the heat and leave to infuse. Squeeze juice from 1½ oranges and the lemon, and set aside.
As soon as the cake is turned out of its pan, return the syrup to the heat and bring to the boil. Add the fruit juices and vodka, and strain into a jug, reserving chillies.
While cake is warm, prick it all over with a fork, then drip the syrup into the cake until it is completely covered. Decorate with the candied zest and reserved chillies.
* Dried Kashmiri chillies are from Indian food shops and specialty spice shops. Substitute dried red chillies.
As seen in Feast magazine, Issue 10, pg97.
Photography by David Loftus.