English weather is a mystery to me. This morning as I was taking Stan on his morning walk, I had a hoodie, a jacket, a hat and in desperate need of some gloves. It’s what I used to call “smoking weather” when I was much younger because you can see your breath when you speak, as if it were smoke. I still call it that. One day you’ll have hail, the next you’ll have sun.
Now as I write this, the sun is shinning, the birds are singing, and I can feel the warmth of the sun hit the back of my neck. Being the Arizona girl that I am, born and raised, I miss the sun. I miss the sun and I miss the heat. Especially after my first English winter, I am particularly looking forward to the change of seasons to a time when the sun will make a more regular appearance on a day to day basis.
Don’t get me wrong – I do love experiencing actual seasons. It gets boring having the same weather day in and day out. I’m also not missing the blistering hot July summer days where you can’t leave the house until after 5pm because anytime before that is just too unbearable to be without air conditioning. Until you’ve cooked an egg on the sidewalk, you don’t know what heat is.
That all being said, I could do with a little more Vitamin D in my life. I could also always do with a little baking. My solution to everything whether it be homesickness or actual sickness (Mike’s got a bit of a cold this week), is usually baking. Hey – it’s good for the soul. So after consulting my overly full fruit basket, I made this grain free orange cake because why not?
Grain Free Orange Cake
Grain free orange cake made with a whole orange
Ingredients
- 2 oranges
- 3 eggs
- 3/4 cup (237 grams) maple syrup or honey (250g)
- 3 cups (288g) almond flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
Instructions
- Place both your oranges in a large pot with enough water to cover the oranges, and bring it to a boil. Allow the oranges to simmer for about 25 minutes.
- Preheat your oven to 325°F/160°C. Line or lightly grease a 10 inch cake pan (round or square).
- While your oranges are simmering, mix together the eggs and maple syrup in a large mixing bowl. Once mixed, add in the almond flour and the baking powder.
- Back to the oranges, drain the water and roughly chop the oranges. After boiling them, they should be easy to cut up. Discard the seeds and place the chopped orange bits in a food processor or high powered blender. I used my Blendtec for this and it worked beautifully. And yes, you are using the whole orange, so don't worry about peeling. Blend until smooth.
- Once blended, pour into the prepared batter and mix it all together.
- Bake for about 55-65 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Cool for about 10 minutes, and enjoy.
Faith A. Tyler says
Absolutely delicious. I was so happy it was not too sweet. At first glance, the boiling of the oranges sounds off-putting, but the mixture went together perfectly! I would suggest keeping with the baking timeframe to 65 minutes. I could barely wait for the cake to cool to taste it…it wa still slightly warm, but it was delicious.
Thanks for such an easy & quick cake that I can enjoy with my morning or evening coffee/tea 🙂
Sarah Nevins says
Thank you so much, Faith! I’m so thrilled you gave it a shot and enjoyed it!
ravencrum says
Do you think this would work with flax substituting the eggs?
Sarah Nevins says
Hi there! I’m not too sure about flax eggs – as a general rule of thumb I don’t recommend using flax eggs in place of actual eggs if the recipe calls for more than 2 eggs. That being said, I haven’t tried it out myself so I’m not positive how it would/wouldn’t work
ava says
bonjour sarah,
pouvez vous me dire si je peux remplacer la farine d’amande par poudre d’amande. car dans les magasins bio en france je ne la trouve pas. il faut commander sur internet.
merci
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Ava! Yes! Almond powder and almond flour are the same thing. I believe almond powder is just another name for almond flour 🙂
Paula says
I made this today and it turned out great! My only substitution was not to use honey. I used Splenda because I’m a diabetic and I was trying to cut out all sugar except the sugar in the oranges. (I’m not sure how much, but maybe 1/2 cup? I should have measured so I’d know for next time. I added a little after putting in the oranges because it seemed like it needed more.) Turned out so orangey, moist, and delicious! Even my 12-year old likes it and he usually only likes super sugary cake with gloppy icing on top. Thanks!
Sarah says
Yay! Thanks Paula! And thanks for letting me know what you did differently – comments like this are always super helpful!
Kathy shaw says
I love this. Ale and make it all the time, can I use lemons instead?
Sarah says
Thanks Kathy! I’m not sure how different the flavour would be with lemons but I think technically you should be able to swap those out no problem – might just need to add a little bit more sweetener to balance it out but should work!