Whole Orange & Almond Cake
An easy, delicious blitz and bake cake (gluten and dairy-free too).
For a gluten-free cake/s, ensure your baking powder and icing sugar are gluten-free. Using blood oranges for the cake's glaze gives it a beautiful, natural pink colour. If you can't get hold of blood oranges, any other orange variety tastes delicious too (you can always add a little beetroot juice, freeze-dried raspberry/plum powder or a drop of food colouring to achieve the pink hue). If you are short on time, skip the candied orange slices and glaze and simply dust the cooled cake with icing sugar.
Enough for one large or two small Bundt cakes (about 12 - 16 portions)
WHOLE ORANGE & ALMOND CAKE
oranges, 2
eggs, 6
caster sugar, 300g (375ml or 1 + 1/2 cup)
ground almonds, 300g (750ml or 3 cups)
baking powder, 7.5ml (1 + 1/2 teaspoon)
CANDIED ORANGE SLICES
orange, 1
caster sugar, 200g (250ml or 1 cup)
water, 250g (250ml or 1 cup)
ORANGE GLAZE
icing sugar, 165g (250ml or 1 cup)
orange juice, 60ml (1/4 cup)
For the cake, wash the two oranges thoroughly then place them in a medium saucepan. Cover the oranges with water then cook them on a low heat until you can easily pierce them with a knife or skewer (it takes about an hour or so).
Drain the cooked oranges and leave them to cool (you can cut the oranges in half to cool faster and to check for any seeds).
Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan) and grease your tin/s.
Puree the cooked oranges in a food processor or blender.
Add the remaining cake ingredients and blitz until smooth (if your blender is small, transfer the orange puree to a mixing bowl before whisking in the remaining cake ingredients).
Pour the cake batter into the prepared Bundt tin/s and bake until golden in colour and a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean (approximately 45 - 60 minutes depending on your tin size/s).
Once baked, remove the tin/s from the oven and leave the cake/s to cool in the tin/s (the cake/s will be very delicate fresh out the oven).
To make the candied oranges, place the sugar and water in a small saucepan over a medium heat stirring occasionally until all the sugar has dissolved.
Cut the orange into thin slices and place the slices in the sugar syrup. Simmer on a low heat until the white, orange pith is fairly translucent (about 15 - 25 minutes depending on how thin the orange slices).
Remove the saucepan from the heat and leave the orange slices to cool in the syrup.
To make the orange glaze, mix together the icing sugar and orange juice until smooth.
Decorate the cooled cake/s with the orange glaze, orange slices and pomegranate arils if you like (or simply dust with icing sugar).
