
I used to call this the ‘Working Woman’s’ cake because, despite its appearance perhaps misleading you to think otherwise, it really is the simplest, easiest cake to make. If you are a woman (or general person) with a hectic life of school runs, play dates, activities, household tasks and work, fear not. You can still have time to make this cake and impress your guests. It really is simple even for the most amateur of bakers.
I’ve been making this cake for years and I’m not sure why it’s never gone up on the blog. Probably because I make it so often that it never seemed particularly blog-worthy for me, but every time I make it people ask if the recipe is on the blog so they can make it. So here it is.
It does use eggs, so it’s not vegan, but it is free of gluten, wheat, dairy and refined sugar. I would encourage anyone using eggs to buy your eggs directly from a farm, making sure they are from free-range organic hens. I get mine from a local farm called Aldenham, and they’re just fab. One day, we hope to have some more land and be able to keep our own chickens (although that would just add to the aforementioned workload, wouldn’t it?)
The cake should come out fully cooked but really moist (sorry to those who hate that word. I actually kind of like how it sounds 🙂 ). You boil 2 oranges and once they’re soft, you use the entire orange, peel and everything, to give it that super orangey taste that also makes it so moist. Just make sure it is fully cooked through before bringing it out the oven.
Anyway, I urge you to make this cake. It won’t disappoint.
Ingredients
2 whole oranges
6 free-range organic eggs
250g ground almonds
200g coconut palm sugar
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch salt
Chocolate ganache topping (which is optional, by the way):
1 heaped tbsp coconut oil
3 tbsp raw cacao powder
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 heaped tsp cashew or almond butter (to thicken the sauce)
Method
Boil the oranges in a saucepan of water for 45 mins to an hour, until they are very soft.
While the oranges are boiling away, preheat the oven to 180* and line a 23cm springform cake tin with baking paper at the bottom, and grease it with coconut oil (or butter if you prefer).
Once the oranges are ready, put them on a chopping board and cut them into quarters, removing the pips, and let them cool a little bit.
While the oranges are cooling, mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl (ground almonds, baking powder, salt and coconut palm sugar).
Go back to the oranges. Put the oranges (peel and all) in a food processor and once they’ve been in around 20 seconds, start adding the eggs while the processor is still working, to aerate the eggs, and blend until smooth.
Add this orange mix to the dry mix in the bowl and mix well, until fully incorporated.
Pour this into the prepare cake tin. It will seem really runny but that’s ok.
Bake for 40-45 minutes or until cake is fully cooked through and a fork comes out clean. The cake should still be moist though.
While it is cooling on the side, make the ganache by melting all the ingredients together gently in a saucepan, then once the cake is cool, remove from the tin and spread the ganache over top of the cake and let it cool for a bit before serving.
Love & health,
Lauren