Orange You Glad There’s Dessert? Whole Orange and Almond Cake

This cake is a combination of “I need to get more protein in my diet” and “white processed flour isn’t really great for you.”

There are, however, six eggs. Before anyone gets too excited about this being some sort of diet cake, there’s also a cup of sugar and a generous amount of almonds. We are making dessert here.

It begins with whole oranges, simmered in water until they’re very soft. Once cooled, they’re cut open to remove any seeds, then puréed, skin and all. If you’re accustomed to carefully zesting an orange while avoiding the white pith, this requires a small leap of faith.

The long simmer softens the peel and mellows its bitterness. The resulting purée gives the cake its orange flavor and moisture, while almond flour adds richness and a gently nutty taste. There’s no butter, no oil and no wheat flour.

The original recipe calls for two medium, thin-skinned oranges weighing about 14 ounces altogether. I used three small ones. Size matters less than the total amount, so a kitchen scale is useful if your oranges don’t fit the description.

Once the oranges are cooked and puréed, the batter is straightforward. Beat the eggs and sugar together, stir in the remaining ingredients and pour everything into a prepared springform pan. The finished cake has a moist, substantial crumb rather than the fluffy texture of a conventional layer cake.

Let it cool completely before releasing the pan. This is the part of baking that requires more discipline than I generally want to devote to cake, but a tender cake needs time to settle.

It’s even better the next day, making it a useful dessert when you’re having people over. Serve it with lightly whipped cream or a spoonful of Greek yogurt. Neither needs to be elaborate; the orange provides plenty of flavor.

And there’s something satisfying about a recipe that makes such good use of the fruit. Apart from the seeds, those three little oranges had very little left to give.

Whole Orange and Almond Cake

INGREDIENTS

3 small thin-skinned oranges, about 14 ounces total, or 2 medium oranges

6 large eggs

1 cup sugar

2½ cups finely ground almonds or almond flour, about 250 grams

1 teaspoon baking powder, gluten-free if needed

¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla, optional

METHOD

Wash the oranges and place them whole in a saucepan. Cover with water, bring to a boil, then simmer gently for 1½–2 hours, until very soft. Add water as needed to keep them covered.

Drain and let cool. Quarter the oranges and remove any seeds. Purée the remaining fruit, including the peel, in a food processor. Make absolutely sure to process until super creamy, or your cake will be pulpy in texture.

Heat the oven to 350. Grease a 9-inch springform pan and line the bottom with parchment.

Beat the eggs and sugar until well combined. Stir in the orange purée, almond flour, baking powder, salt and optional vanilla.

Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 50–65 minutes, until the center is set and a skewer comes out with moist crumbs but no wet batter. Cover loosely with foil if the top browns too quickly.

Cool completely before removing from the pan. Serve plain or with Greek yogurt or lightly whipped cream.

Note: This cake contains almonds and eggs. For a gluten-free cake, check the ingredient labels, including the baking powder.

For the finishing touch, I added a simple orange glaze made with 10X confectioners’ sugar and freshly squeezed orange juice. It adds a little sweetness and another layer of orange flavor without much extra work.

Orange Glaze

1 cup 10X confectioners’ sugar

1–2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice

Whisk the sugar with 1 tablespoon of orange juice until smooth. Add more juice, a little at a time, until the glaze is thick but pourable. Drizzle over the completely cooled cake and let set before slicing.

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