Orange Mini Cakes
These soft, moist, syrupy cakes are an orange lover’s dream.
These gluten-free cakes (just ensure your baking powder is gluten-free) are soft and moist thanks to the cooked kumara (sweet potato) even if it seems a strange ingredient for a cake. When available, I like using blood orange for the glaze (which gives it a beautiful pink colour), but feel free to use any type of orange available to you. I use 170ml capacity dariole moulds, but any mini cake or muffin tin works well too (you might have to adjust the baking time though).
Enough for 6 - 12 mini cakes (depending on the cake mould/tin)
ORANGE, SWEET POTATO & ALMOND CAKE BATTER
unsalted butter, 100g
caster sugar, 100g (125ml or 1/2 cup)
zest of 2 oranges
eggs, 2
ground almonds/almond flour, 200g (500ml or 2 cups)
cooked & cooled sweet potato (mashed), 125g (125ml or 1/2 cup)
baking powder, 5ml (1 teaspoon)
ORANGE SYRUP
juice of 1 orange, about 125ml (1/2 cup)
caster sugar, 50g (60ml or 1/4 cup)
CREAM CHEESE ICING
unsalted butter, 50g
cream cheese, 250g - 1 block Philadelphia original cream cheese
icing sugar, 85g (about 1/2 cup)
vanilla bean paste, 5ml (1 teaspoon)
ORANGE GLAZE
icing sugar, about 80g (125ml or 1/2 cup)
orange juice, 30ml (2 tablespoons)
To start, preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan) and grease your cake tin/moulds.
Roughly chop the butter then place it in a heat proof bowl. Softened the butter for a few seconds in the microwave then transfer it to a large mixing bowl or the mixing bowl of a free-standing mixer.
Add the caster sugar and orange zest (best done using a fine microplane over the mixing bowl).
Beat together for a couple of minutes until the mixture is pale and fluffy (use the paddle attachment if using a free-standing mixer).
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well for about a minute after each addition (scraping down the sides regularly with a spatula).
Add the ground almonds, sweet potato and baking powder and beat together again for a couple of minutes until fluffy.
Divide the batter among the moulds, smoothing out the tops.
Bake until golden and a skewer inserted in the middle of each cake comes out clean (approximately 25 - 30 minutes but will depend on your tin sizes and oven).
While baking, make the orange syrup by combining the orange juice and sugar in a small saucepan. Heat until the sugar dissolves, then remove from the heat.
Once baked, remove the tins from the oven and spoon over the syrup (about a tablespoon per moulds) then leave the cakes in the moulds/tin to cool completely.
Once cool, remove the mini cakes from the moulds and place on a serving plate.
To prepare the cream cheese icing, in a small heat-proof bowl, soften the butter for a few seconds in the microwave (until soft but not melted) then transfer it to a mixing bowl.
Add the remaining ingredients and beat together using electric beaters or an electric mixer (use the paddle attachment) for a few minutes until light and fluffy.
To make the orange glaze, mix together the icing sugar and orange juice until smooth.
Once the mini cakes are cooled, remove them from the moulds then top with cream cheese icing and a drizzle of the orange glaze.
