Best Orange and Almond Cake

Orange and Almond Cake - gluten and wheat free

FLOURLESS ORANGE AND ALMOND CAKE

This is one of the best orange cakes I have ever had the pleasure of tasting and making. This recipe came to me during 1989-1991 the years when my husband and I ventured into the tea room business, yes, that's a story for another time.

A staff member offered me this recipe to try and she assured me it was the best ever orange cake she had come across and convinced me that it would sell really well in the tea rooms.

I must admit once we introduced this delicious orange and almond cake into our selection of daily cakes, we had customers returning weekly just to feed on the super scrumptious orange cake. This orange cake was so popular with the customers there was no way we could get away with not having this cake on the sideboard.

So here is the recipe, may you enjoy making and eating this awesome orange and almond cake as much as we have.

Ingredients:

2 large oranges

6 large eggs

200g castor sugar

250g almond meal (skinless ground almonds)

1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

butter for the cake tin

Method:

Wash the oranges and place in a saucepan add water to cover, replace lid and bring to the boil.  

Turn down the heat and simmer for 2 hours.  Turning the oranges and keeping an eye on the water level.

  

After 2 hours remove the oranges from the water and allow to cool. 

NOTE: You can cook your oranges the day before and keep in the refrigerator in a sealed container overnight.

When the oranges are totalling cold, pull open the cooked oranges and remove all the pips. 

Place the whole orange with skin in a food blender and blend to a pulp.

In a large bowl beat the eggs with a pinch of salt until fluffy, add sugar and beat well again.

Add the almond meal and baking powder and mix well. 

Then add the orange pulp and mix again.

Use a 23cm springform cake tin with removable base and butter and line with baking sheet.

Bake in a pre-heated oven 190C for about 60 minutes.

Test with a skewer. If still wet after 1 hour, then leave a little longer.

Turn off the oven, and let the cake sit in oven with door ajar for approximately 30 minutes.

After you have removed the cake from the oven, allow to cool for another 30 minutes and then turn out upside down onto a cooling rack and remove baking sheet.

When the cake is completely cool, place on a serving plate, upside down.

Decorate according to taste.

You can sprinkle with icing sugar, before serving

OR

Coat top and sides with warmed apricot jam, then add glace/candied orange slices OR sprinkle with almond flakes.

OR

decadently glaze the top with dark chocolate.

The choice is yours. I like the apricot jam coating all over and prefer to keep it simple unless it's a special occasion then I will decorate with the orange slices or almond flakes or totally go all out and glaze with dark chocolate.

Bon Appetit!