Middle eastern orange cake / flourless orange cake
This flourless orange cake is really quite amazing. The cake is unbelievably moist and has a wonderful, deep orange flavour that is quite surprising. Once the oranges have been boiled, it’s very quick to put together (The recipe says to boil the oranges for two hours. I only did about one, and they were fine).
Rather than making a big cake, you can see that I made little cakes. Half of the mixture I poured into heart shaped moulds, but the bases stuck when I turned them out and they all broke! Damn delicate things!
On top of the cakes is candied rind (recipe below). Unfortunately, I had too much of the pith and the rind was quite bitter. Well, at least it looked cute.
Claudia Roden’s Middle Eastern Orange Cake
From Stephanie Alexander’s The Cook’s Companion
2 large oranges, washed
6 eggs, beaten
250g ground almonds
250g sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
Boil oranges, barely covered with water, in a covered saucepan for 2 hours. Allow to cool, then cut open, remove pips and chop roughly, including the rind.
Preheat oven to 190Ā°C and butter and flour a 24cm springform tin. Blend oranges and eggs thoroughly in a food processor. Mix ground almonds, sugar and baking powder in a bowl, then add orange mixture and whisk to combine. Pour batter into prepared tin and bake for 45 minutes – 1 hour. If cake is still very wet, cook a little longer. Cool in tin before gently turning out.
Candied citrus peel and syrup
From Donna Hay’s Modern Classics 2
Place 1 & 1/2 cups (12 fl oz) water and 1 cup sugar in a saucepan over low heat. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add 1/2 cup shredded orange, lemon or line rind, increase the heat and boil for 6-8 minutes or until the rind is glossy and transparent. Use the rind on its own for decoration or pour over with the warm syrup for deliciously moist cakes.
danny
May 27, 2008 @ 11:53 pm
oooh ground almonds! I always wondered what the heck goes into a flourless cake.. =P
jfox
May 28, 2008 @ 5:57 pm
your photos are gorgeous agnes (food and phillip island š )
orange flourless cakes are quite sticky aren’t they? what was the texture like? the last one we tried was a bit too heavy, but smaller versions are a great idea š
Agnes
May 29, 2008 @ 8:23 pm
Danny – really? I actually kind of thought you would be an expert on cake, considering how many cupcakes you eat! š
Thanks jfox! It was pretty sticky – the texture was moist and cakey. It wasn’t particularly heavy but perhaps it was because they were so little!
purple goddess
June 2, 2008 @ 4:50 pm
Ed at Tomatom has just turned me on to silicon bakeware…
Maybe that’s the answer.
I am going to have to make this and report back.
Great work, love!
Agnes
June 6, 2008 @ 4:45 pm
Hi PG! I have a few silicon bakeware thingies – they are pretty good. The heart cakes were in a silicon mould, but I wasn’t careful enough turning them out… ack!