Flourless Orange or Mandarin Cake

Serves 10-12

Ingredients

2 oranges (or 3 smaller oranges or mandarins), washed
250 g caster sugar, plus extra for dusting
6 eggs
250 g almond meal
1 tsp baking powder
icing sugar, to serve

Summary

We’ve all probably enjoyed this classic flourless cake many times, but it just never fails to please a crowd and is an absolute cinch to whip up.  It’s also a great way to transform a bounty of oranges or mandarins you may have at hand.  You get to blend up the whole fruit (skin and pips and all) which is pretty fun, plus it’s gluten free, dairy free and totally delicious.

 

Flourless Orange or Mandarin Cake

Bring a pot of water to the boil. Wash the oranges and boil until soft, which will take somewhere between 1 and 2 hours, depending on the size of the fruit.  And actually, you don’t even really need to cook them – I’ve made this in a hurry by blending the raw fruit and it still works but I’d say cooking them is even better.  Drain and allow to cool to room temperature. You can do this ahead of time, and if you have a glut of citrus you’re not eating, you could boil a few cakes worth to freeze for emergency baking.

Preheat the oven to 160°C. Grease and line a 22 cm spring form cake tin with baking paper.

Beat the eggs and caster sugar with a stick blender (or in a food processor) until well combined.  Add the whole cooked fruit (or raw!) followed by the almond meal and baking powder, and whiz until it all comes together.  Pour the mix into the prepared tin and consider dusting the top with extra caster sugar.

Bake for 1 – 1¼ hours, until the top is golden.  As my mother taught me, a cooked cake will have the edges just coming away from the sides, and a skewer inserted into the centre will come out clean.  Though keep in mind this is a very moist cake.

Allow to cool in the tin.  Dust with icing sugar, cut into slices and serve.  Delicious with a dollop of yoghurt.

(This classic recipe shared with thanks to SBS Food Safari)

 

Hints and Tips

Raw Victorian organic almonds are available in our webstore, in small or bulk quantities so you can make your own fresh almond meal if you have a blender or coffee grinder.   Just add enough almonds to cover the blades of your blender and whizz on high for about 7 seconds, until fine and fluffy.  Sift the meal if there are large chunks remaining, and blend those again.  And watch it closely – mixing too long will create an almond butter, which is great but not for this cake.  Store any left over almond meal in the fridge.