I have made Claudia Roden’s whole orange and almond cake in various guises and with many tweakings for years and years since I first eagerly bought her encyclopedic book “A new book of Middle Eastern Cookery” while at university – somehow the co0kery book section at “Dillons” was always more interesting than the engineering one! Glancing at the book now, I see my handwritten notes about adding in some polenta in Romania and some fine cornmeal with musky mastic while visiting the Greek island of Kefalonia for a reunion.
The recipe is a Sephardic Jewish recipe which they took from Spain and Portugal when they fled the peninsula in the Inquisition and were welcomed to Turkey and other countries of the region including Egypt, Claudia Roden’s country of birth. This inspired me to add some saffron which deepens the colour and imbues the cake with that subtle smoky sweet saffron type taste.
And so this recipe is inspired by that classic recipe; It is a whole orange cake and while not completely flour free it is gluten free and very low in sugar. Overall of course because the orange skin (boiled and pulped) becomes part of the cake too, it is very very low in carbohydrates and is “zero waste” so very very smart. To complete its modern credentials it is vegan too.
While the ingredients list may look a little long the method is extremely simple and only needs a blender and a mixing bowl. The cake is a moist cake that keeps well. It is perfect as a dessert with some fresh fruit or thick Greek yoghurt. But my guilty pleasure is eating a plain slice for breakfast with a cup of coffee!
Ingredients
Wet ingredients:
- 250g boiled orange (1 medium orange)
- 200ml of the cooking water in which 0.1g of precious saffron has been soaked for an hour or so
- 100ml melted coconut oil
- 50ml of maple syrup (or runny honey)
Dry Ingredients:
- 100g gluten free flour (I use a mix of rice, chickpea, cornflour)
- 100g coconut flour or ground dessicated coconut
- 100g ground almonds/ almond flour
- 50g birch sap sugar (xylitol) plus 50g coconut nectar for this low GI version (or 100g sugar)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 0.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda
To decorate:
- 50g large coconut flakes
How To – 1 deep 23cm tin or 2 shallower 20cm tins
Notes on simplifying: If you are not so fussed about gluten you can simplify to 200g plain flour and 100g ground almonds. If you are not so worried about sugar you can substitute 150g sugar for the maple syrup, coconut sugar and birch sap sugar.
- Line and oil your tins with coconut oil and baking paper
- Boil 1 medium size orange in water that covers it until completely soft – approximately 1 hour. You can do this 1 to 2 days earlier. The orange needs to cool.
- Set the oven to 170C
- Coarsely chop the orange and blend the wet ingredients into a thick puree in a blender or with a stick blender – take care to pick out any pips from the orange first.
- Place all the dry ingredients into a larger mixing bowl
- Pour the puree on to the dry ingredients and mix gently until the cake batter just comes together. It needs to be “dropping consistency” so if it is a little too stiff and dry add a little of the orange boiling liquid.
- Fill the cake tins 2/3 full
- sprinkle the coconut flakes on top of the cake mix
- Bake at 170C until a toothpick comes out clean – 30-40 minutes. If your oven is fierce (as mine is) you may want to bake it with an aluminium foil cover to protect the coconut and then remove for the final 10 minutes
Ideas and Improvisations
Instead of saffron use cardamon or ground mastic. Swap the coconut flakes for almond flakes.
Create a syrup from the boiling liquid with some maple syrup or honey and drizzle over for a truly squidgy experience