There is a very thin line between a perfectly baked whole orange cake and a soggy citrus mess. And there are two very distinct sets of people on both sides of that line. The ones who enjoy a good pudding like cake that can only be scooped up with a dessert fork or those who like a moist cake with a delicate crumb (like me!).
Whole orange cakes are usually baked in slabs, because there is no way you could un mould one of these from a bundt pan. Being baked in slabs or shallow rectangular tins also makes a whole orange cake a perfect dessert. You could cut it up in squares or rounds (using cookie cutters), top with ice cream, a sprinkling of good chocolate, maybe a dehydrated slice of orange and voila! The easiest, most divine looking dessert ever!
I first started baking whole orange cakes back in 2011 with this Mandarin Polenta Cake after our first mandarin picking trip in Sydney. We used to also buy a beautiful whole orange cake by the slab from a bakery in Sydney. I always found this cake to be too moist, soggy even. Delicious but soggy. Now, everyone can't do soggy. I can, but my youngest can't. So I set out to create a firmer and healthier version of the whole orange cake. I found that most recipes called for large eggs and copious amounts of butter. With these two ingredients as my starting point, I managed to pare down the ingredients and added some flavour boosts in the process.
The resulting whole orange cake had no butter, no oil and no flour. It was light and moist but firm enough to pick up and eat with your fingers (no worries there, if you forgot to pack your fork on your picnic!). The dash of salt and cardamom really lifted the citrus flavours and this quickly became my go to dessert for dinner parties.
The most amazing thing about this recipe is that you can make the batter in the blender. All of it! The oranges are boiled and then blended with eggs. The rest of the ingredients follow suit and you just blend it all up for a few seconds. Because this is a gluten free cake, you cannot go wrong with the mixing - there won't be any under mixing or over mixing here! A really good cake if you are looking to bake with kids or trying your hand at baking for the first time.
Have a look at my notes for really helpful information regarding the size of eggs and the texture of the almonds. I hope you bake this beautiful orange cake. Do share your feedback in the comment/rating below and I would love to see your orange cake photos on Instagram. Remember to tag @cookrepublic #cookrepublic! Thanks lovelies. x
Recipe
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Ingredients
- 2 whole oranges, 300g
- 4 small-medium eggs
- 250 g ground almonds or almond meal
- 180 g rapadura sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla powder or extract
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
- pinch of salt
Instructions
- Wash and pat dry the oranges. Place in a small saucepan filled with water over medium heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and gently simmer for an hour. Check to see if water has evaporated and top up if required.
- Pre-heat oven to 180C (convention)/ 160C (fan-forced/convection).
- Remove from heat and allow to cool. Cut oranges in quarters and slice off the pith/seeds.
- Place cute oranges (with skin) in the jug of a blender with the eggs. Blend for a minute on high until smooth.
- Add all the remaining ingredients to the jug of the blender and process for a few seconds until just combined. This produces a smoother texture. ALTERNATIVELY pour the orange and egg mixture in a bowl. Add all the other ingredients and mix gently with a spoon until just combined. This produces a coarser texture.
- Grease and line a 20cm square tin or 27cm X 17cm slice tin with baking paper.
- Spoon the cake batter into the prepared tin. Bake in the pre-heated oven for approximately 40 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan slightly, before cutting into slices.
- Enjoy warm or store in an air-tight tin in a cool corner of your kitchen for up to 3 days.
- Best served with a dollop of vanilla ice cream with grated orange chocolate.
Notes
Love the sound of this cake Sneh. Is there a way we can make it vegan and still have it not too soggy/ crumbly?
I haven't tried it, but I think flax eggs would work well here. I have replaced flax eggs for regular eggs in my other cake recipes with good results. To make 1 flax egg, just mix 1 tablespoon of flaxseed meal with 3 tablespoons of water and let it rest for 15-30 minutes. You will need 4 flax eggs for this recipe. Good luck!
I Made this recipe .This is really amazing ...
This is new recipe of orange cake. I Like it...
This is so intriguing...love the idea of putting whole oranges in a cake! This would be perfect for Christmas. Going to put it on my to-bake list!
This looks lovely! I will definitely be trying this but I don't have rapadura sugar; would raw sugar or caster sugar be good substitutes, and in what amounts?
Sneh, this looks amazing! But sadly, I can't eat almonds. Is there any other kind of flour you can recommend to replace the almond meal?
Dear Teri, if you aren't allergic to other nuts, hazelnut meal (same quantity) would work well. If allergic to all nuts, I'd try desiccated coconut instead. I'd start with 150g and then only add more if batter is too loose (the final consistency should be thick but pourable) and keep in mind that coconut will continue to thicken and dry the batter out. I would say about 180g desiccated coconut would work well. x