1. Dissolve the soda in the orange juice and sift the flour with the baking powder, cinnamon, the powdered cloves and a pinch of salt. 
2. In the mixer beat the sugar with the oil until the sugar is dissolved.
3. Then gradually add the juice, the soda, the brandy, the orange zest and then half the flour.
4. Pour the mixture into a bowl and knead it. Add little by little the rest of the flour. 
5. Knead until a dough is smooth and soft but you do not need to knead it for a long time because melomakarona will not become fluffy.
6. Preheat the oven to 180 C degrees. Take pieces of walnut-sized dough (55g) and shape them into oval, infatable melomakarona, and place them on the cheese grater to get the wavy shape or pierce them with a fork.
7. Spread them on a parchment paper on baking pans. Bake them for about 20-25 minutes, remove them and let them cool a little.
8. Then transfer them to a rack to cool completely and tighten. 

For the syrup
1.In a saucepan, mix the sugar with the water and the peels and let it simmer over low heat. 
2.Add honey and lemon juice. Remove the pot from the heat and throw away the peels. 
3.When melomakarona cool, we can join them by dipping them into the syrup. 
4.Leave them for 15 minutes, from each side and take them out. Sprinkle them with walnuts and put them on platters.

A recipe by Stavri Georgiou