This Flourless Orange Cake is one of the easiest gluten-free cakes you'll ever make! Made with whole oranges, almond meal and just 5 simple ingredients, it's incredibly moist, fragrant and topped with stunning candied oranges. With a clever shortcut that cooks the oranges in just 25 minutes, this beautiful citrus cake is perfect for now when oranges are in season!
About This Flourless Orange Cake
Whole oranges and ground almonds make up this incredible orange cake that is decorated with candied oranges and made with just 5 ingredients! This flourless cake is incredibly moist and unlike any other orange cake. It is actually a mash up of two orange cakes on my blog: the very popular Upside Down Blood Orange Cake and Claudia Roden's Middle Eastern Blood Orange cake.
Why You'll Love This Orange Cake
Did I mention that it uses just 5 ingredients that are easy to find? :)
It's a low waste cake as we use whole oranges, pith, skin and all!
It is gluten free so great to serve to people with gluten sensitivity.
The cake part is very simple - just add all ingredients to a food processor and blend.
If you've got lots of oranges, this is the cake recipe for you! It uses up around 7 oranges.
Claudia's recipe calls for boiling the oranges for 2 hours but thanks to reader Julie from many years ago, I've got a method that cuts that time down to 25 minutes!
Video How To Make Flourless Orange Cake
Video: Flourless Orange Cake Recipe
Ingredients For Flourless Orange Cake
Oranges - Fresh navel oranges.
Sugar - caster or superfine sugar so that the sugar melts into the batter easily.
Eggs - large eggs at room temperature.
Almonds - Use almond meal or ground almonds.
Baking powder - To give it rise and this is different from bicarb. Check that your baking powder is still in date if you don't bake often! ;)
Tips For Making Flourless Orange Cake
1 - Make the candied oranges first while the oranges are boiling for the cake batter. I used the larger oranges for the cake batter and medium sized ones for the candied oranges as I wanted more of a striking overlapping effect but this isn't necessary if your oranges are the same size. I'm just that person ;)
2 - You will make more candied orange than you will need but the key is to use the best looking orange slices for the pattern. I blend up the remaining candied orange and it makes a great rough marmalade.
3 - Slice the oranges using a mandolin for a consistent thickness. For my mandolin I sliced it on the thickest setting. You want a whole perfect slice (not those half or partial slices) that is still thin enough to bend easily.
4 - You can boil the oranges for the cake batter a couple of days ahead of time and keep in the fridge until needed.
5 - Use navel oranges which are in season now. Navels don't have seeds in them so you won't have to pick through the orange to remove all of the seeds.
6 - I like to make this cake one day and then serve it the next day. It is so moist and damp (in a good way!) that it keeps well in the fridge in an airtight container. I leave the syrup in the fridge where it thickens and then glaze the cake before serving it.
Step 1 CANDIED ORANGES - Slice oranges using a mandolin or knife, you want them around 2-3mm or around 1/8 inch and they should be whole slices, not half or partial slices. Place the sugar and water in a medium saucepan on medium heat and stir to melt the sugar. Once melted, add in the orange slice and simmer for 10-15 minutes until the peels become semi translucent. Scoop orange slices out of the saucepan onto a plate and leave to cool. Allow the syrup to simmer for 1 minute and then leave to cool.
Step 2 TILING - Line the base and sides of a 20cm/8inch springform tin with parchment. Once the orange slices are cool enough to handle, brush the syrup onto the parchment to adhere the orange slices and place down the orange slices that curve around on the side first and then tile them around that overlapping them so that there are no gaps. The ones on the side are the peskiest to stick but persevere using the syrup which gets nice and sticky once cooled. Reserve the remaining syrup to brush over cake once baked.
Step 3 BOILED ORANGES - Pierce oranges all over with a knife and place in a microwave proof bowl with enough water to entirely cover oranges. Cover with cling film and microwave on high for 25 minutes until soft and sunken in. Alternatively you can boil whole oranges in water in a covered saucepan for 2 hours. Discard water, allow to cool, then cut open, remove pips and chop roughly. You can do this step a day or so ahead of time and keep the boiled oranges, once cooled, in the fridge.
Step 4 BLEND - Preheat oven to 190C/374F fan forced or 210C/410F conventional. Place the chopped oranges into a food processor and blend until smooth (Thermomix: 15 seconds, speed #10). Add almond meal, sugar, eggs and baking powder and blitz until well combined (Thermomix: 20 seconds, speed #7).
Step 5 BAKE - Scoop batter into the tin on top of the orange slices and smooth over. Bake for 1 hour. Cool in the tin and then upturn onto a serving plate and remove parchment. Brush syrup on top and serve.
Substitution notes:
Try this with blood oranges too!
Personal Note
Although this cake looks like a celebration cake, it's really quite straightforward I promise! And in rather exciting news, we are actually going to Singapore in December to see my mother and sister. We enjoy going to Singapore and my mother still loves to go out for lunch even if she can't travel any more. She does have to go in a wheelchair but she enjoys a good lunch as much as anyone.
The last one we went to was at a Japanese restaurant in Marina Bay Sands. There were four of us: my mother, sister Blythe, Mr NQN and I. It was for my birthday and Blythe had pre-ordered a special birthday cake for me.
Blythe is also a very organised person so she whispered to the waitress, "The cake is for my sister. She and her husband are visiting from Australia." It was her way of stressing that it was a special occasion for overseas visitors. The waitress nodded and came back a few minutes later carrying the cake.
She then promptly took it to my mother!
The whole table could not stop laughing at this. In one gesture she had managed to shade everyone. My mother definitely does not look like Blythe's sister and Mr NQN definitely doesn't look like her husband! And it's something we still laugh about this to this day.
So tell me Dear Reader, do you like orange cakes? Have you ever had a case of mistaken identity like that?
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