There really is no better way to describe this cake. The orange flavour is so intense and for those of you who love citrus, you’ll be reaching for a second slice. Along with a few other ingredients, it contains two whole boiled oranges, and almond meal. It’s dense, moist and contains no flour at all. My recipe today comes straight out of Stephanie Alexander’s, “The Cook’s Companion”. A.k.a the Australian Bible of cooking. Stephanie has adapted the recipe from Claudia Roden, who refers to it as Middle Eastern orange cake. I’m going to simply call it orange almond cake. Whatever you want to call it, it really is a special treat. I prepared the cake as part of a dessert course, for a dinner party I was hosting recently. I served it with very thick cream and accompanied it with coffee and muscat. I urge you all to make this orange almond cake today. You will not be disappointed.
RECIPE FOR ORANGE AND ALMOND CAKE
(Adapted from the The Cook’s Companion
- 2 large oranges which have been boiled
- 6 eggs, lightly beaten
- 250 gr of ground almonds
- 250 gr of caster sugar
- 1 teaspoon of baking powder
*I boiled the oranges the night before and allowed them to cool overnight before I prepared the cake the next day*
- Boil the oranges, barely covered in water in a covered saucepan for 2 hours.
- Once cooled, cut them open, remove any pips and chop into rough segments, including the rind.
- Preheat the oven to 190 deg C and butter and flour a 24cm springform pan.
- Blend the oranges and eggs quite thoroughly in a food processor.
- Mix the ground almonds, sugar and baking powder in a bowl and add the orange mixture and whisk it all together to combine.
- Pour the batter in the cake tin and bake for 45 mins to 1 hour.
- Once cooled turn it out on a cake rack and dust with icing sugar.
Serve with thick cream.
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Hi! I'm Peter. Welcome to Souvlaki For The Soul. My "little" space on the web. My blog is choc full of recipes, travel stories and photos. Have a good look around and enjoy your time here. Cheers!
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Peter, I have made this cake before, but with clementines, and it was the most terrible cake EVER! The recipe was by Nigella Lawson and it had boiled clementines in it instead of the oranges. Nobody could get over that overpowering bitter taste and the heavy texture. I don’t know, I think it is not a cake for Greek palates, but your photos make it look delicious!
I can just imagine how this must taste! What lovely moist looking cake!
I like ‘intense’, especially when it comes to flavors. As usual, your photography technique is so clever as to convey the message of ‘intensity’ with one look. I wish you could channel some of your talent to me.
A delightful cake! So refined tasting and delicate! Your shots are always very pretty and atmospheric!
Cheers,
Rosa
So tempting! Your photos always make me hungry.
Peter… be assured that I will steal the recipe of this cake soon! I’m already tasting its flavors in my mind.
And the shots… gorgeous… the third one is close to what I always wanted to achieve: tasty food, great lighting and a sense of home and tradition. Really close to perfection.
I’m bookmarking this page and I really pity anyone who dares not to.
That does look intense, and really amazing. I will definitely give this a try. Thanks for sharing it!
I love the use of darker colors here – the cake is shining like a jewel in the middle of it, Pete!
I bought Stephanie’s book back in 2006 and so far have cooked from it only once… I think that the lack of photos puts me off the book a little.
I just made the same cake this past weekend. I used the Claudia Roden recipe. I only tried a few crumbs, but it seemed a bit too sweet for me….maybe I’ll have to serve it with chocolate to balance the flavors – talk about intense
I like intense flavors and I’m a fan of citrus so I think I love this cake already. Must have been fantastic with coffee and muscat. Beautiful presentation.
I made this cake before and it is such a winner!
Intense orange flavour got me from the word “go” Peter.
I love this cake too! I’ve used blood oranges for it and it has worked out really nicely. And we have the same blue plates!
Ah bless that Stephanie Alexander! There’s something magic about the pairing of oranges and almonds in my opinion. I love this cake and in the past have even tried it with blood oranges. You want intense? try using blood oranges! delish though!!
oh i love orange cakes. i have a recipe on my own blog from my mum i really love the almonds here! and not to mention your photos are just lovely!
i have to admit that i love citrus flavoured cakes, and since we have 500 orange trees, I really think we should start making more use of them in cakes like this. i make a walnut cake that uses a lot of orange flavour, and i’m willing to try this one out too.
Mmmm, I love dense cakes like this – especially with a dollop of whipped cream!
Great recipe Peter. I love the third photo. The lighting of the wedge is just awesome with a wonderful Depth of Field.
Oh, wow, this looks absolutely amazing, Peter! I love citrus and I REALLY love almonds so I am bookmarking this one for sure.
What a fascinating recipe! I’ll have to try this when oranges are again in season.
It looks beautiful. I am not crazy about orange, but I would try a slice of this cake, because it really looks good!
I totally love the dark shots and then that amazing looking cake. I love citrus flavors and this is a bookmarked recipe now!
I’m crazy about oranges and almonds together even when they’re mild. But if they’re “intense,” then this must be one rockin’ cake!
I so want to make this cake!. Oranges are my ALL time favorite fruit and cooking ingredient, and well, cakes..I will def bake this cake very soon.
Agree with the commenters above, you are such a talented photograher, I’m also willing for some talent chanelling!
I love citrus. and the recipe seem easy and tasty .The photo is stunning , le always, in ALL your blog is stunning.
Have a nice week end
I am such a huge citrus fan, and this cake sounds like such a lovely summer dessert. Yum!
Lovely site! Fabulous pictures! Very inspirational!
intense orange is all i need to hear peter! beautiful!
I make a very similar cake to this, the great thing is that it is naturally gluten-free. Love the dark backgrounds of the photos. I’m sure it was a lovely dinner party.
This cake sounds so wonderful right now. I haven’t eaten anything sweet … say like in a few months, totally lost my sweet craving, and surprisingly this cake is got me craving sweets again . Got to have it !
Had to come and see what the wider angle shot that everyone was talking about was all about. Love it too – it’s very “Gourmet Mag”.
I’ve used the Claudia Roden recipe many times – an absolute doddle to make, and one of the most delicious cakes you will ever eat. Great if you have a glut of oranges. Cut down on the sugar if it’s tasting too sweet, add cardamon seeds (though you need loads to make an impact) if you want a bit more complexity, if you somehow manage to overcook it and it’s gone a bit dry, make a light syrup with rosewater and drench. Mmmmm!
I just made this, it’s in the oven now. It looks delicious! I can’t wait to see how intense the orange flavour will come out..
it think it might be time i reopened ‘the bible’ LOL that looks delicios
lol i think a lot of mom’s make orange cakes in the middle east that they’ve named it so… at least the ones i know make this kind of cake a lot!! im gonna recommend that they give your recipe a go though! looks delicious, and your pictures…out of this world! the black works so well!!
I MADE THIS CAKE. LET ME TELL YOU, IF YOU ENJOY THE FLAVOR OF ORANGE & ALMOND THIS CAKE IS OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD!! I AM MAKING IT FOR A DEAR FRIEND ON FATHER’S DAY. I KNOW HE WILL ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT. WILL MAKE THIS CAKE MANY, MANY TIMES THOUGHTOUT THE YEAR. IT IS THAT GOOD!
Hi Peter, thank you for the recipe. I just made the cake. It turned out very well. My parents love them! Free free to drop by on my blog to see my final result! Cheers!
I’ve made this cake twice now and I’m addicted!! But the best part about it is that it is sooooo easy to make!
Very moist, easy to make and absoultely delicious. There was not a crumb in sights!! Thanks very much
I made this cake yesterday using 2 Navel oranges and it was terrible. It was too bitter and there was no taste of the almonds. We had 2 slices and threw the rest of it out. A pity as it is not a cheap cake to make.
Sorry to hear that Martina…I’ve never had a problem making this cake.
hello, i’m a passerby. hope you don’t mind my sharing here. thanks.
the bitterness comes from the white layer that’s between the peel/skin and the “meat”. if you remove that layer. this problem will be solved. just give it another chance, i believe you won’t regret it. the long boiling is mainly for removing such bitterness(Naringin) of that layer. [btw, fyi, there's a Chinese/Cantonese dish called 柚皮(i don't know what it called in English, maybe Pomelo peel, usually served during the mid-autumn festival), its preparation requires the white layer be forked through and boiled for 5 minutes in water, and let sitted in the liquid for 1 hour, then the liquid removed(remember to squeeze dry the layer) and fresh water be added in to soak for another hour, and repeat the procedure for 4 more times (the repeated soaking and rinsing removes all the bitterness). that white layer is ready to cook and eat then.]
whenever i made this cake, i used fresh orange–ground the peel(only the orange part) and mashed it with sugar to free all the orange essential oil within, it smelled heavenly. then removed the white layer(most of it usually, i just peeled it with my fingers, easy), and put the meat in the blender to make it a mush. this way, zero bitterness!
also i replaced 1/7 of the almond with shredded coconut(coconut meat) and another 1/7 of almond with plain flour, this gives a better volume to the cake. and to enhance fluffiness, i separated the egg white and whipped it to a standing foam before mixing it with the main batch.
sometimes, i added 1/4 small lemon peel and lemon juice or added a pinch of cinnemon to play with my tastebuds.
i will love this moist cake always.
P.S. to strengthen the almond flavour, i use sliced almond instead of almond meal. brown the sliced almond in the oven or pan over stove, then put the air cooled brown sliced almond in a plastic bag, grind them to meal form with a rolling pin or wine bottle.
Love the flavour of this cake but find it lighter to beat eggs & sugar first, then fold in the orange pulp, almonds and baking powder.
I made this cake last night, beat the eggs and sugar together first, then added the beaten oranges, almond meal and baking powder.
The taste was delicious and so, so moist. We could not help ourselves and had some whilst it was still warm.
I found the temperature at 190 Degrees C was too high as I have a convection (fan forced) oven and it was starting to burn on the outside and was risiing too fast, so I turned the temp down to 170 Degrees C for the last 20 minutes. Maybe next time I will start it at 170 Degrees C and let you know how it gows.
Other than that it “POLI NOSTIMO” Very Tasty.
Cheers
yia yia Angie
Hello,
I had been searching for a gluten-free cake recipe and the one I found (unfortunately, I do not have the name of the recipe book) was one
similar to this one except the recipe called for lemons instead of oranges. It did not call for baking powder. It turned out lovely especially when topped with a fruity compote. After refrigerating it overnight, the consistency was like cheesecake. It was enjoyed by friends and family.
Great cake, almost too easy … Not sure what type of oranges they were, just something picked up at the local servo, but it’s perfectly sweet and moist! Thanks for sharing!!!
I would like to try this cake. To what consistency do you blend the oranges in the food processor
Thank you. Grace
Hi Grace,
You blend everything to a fine consistency.
Easy Peasy.Microwave the whole oranges on HIGH for 5 minutes in a bowl,preserves the juices and flavours,and saves two hours of simmering.
i forgot to say: i am too impatient to wait, so i never boil the oranges. :-p
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