The Montague house over half-term felt like a busy coffee shop, thanks to this whole orange and almond cake taking centre stage.
Trying to avoid sugar when your children love baking is nearly impossible. Over the week they made an orange cake, a chocolate cake, a coffee-and-chocolate cake and some heart-shaped biscuits.
Despite my best intentions I couldn’t resist sampling them all — with predictable results: itchy rashes and sleepless nights. Still, the orange cake was my definite favourite. Made with whole blood orange, it’s moist, rich and has a lovely crumb.
I can’t claim the recipe — it’s from a trusted book: 101 Cakes & Bakes from GoodFood magazine — but it does show how easy gluten-free baking can be when you use wholegrain gluten-free self-raising flour. I used my Free From Fairy flour blend, which already contains double-acting raising agents, so I didn’t add bicarbonate of soda as the original recipe suggested.
My blend includes two acids and one alkali: one reacts when mixed with liquid and the other during baking. That combination helps gluten-free cakes rise reliably without collapsing. As a tip, avoid adding extra raising agents to a self-raising blend — too much can cause an exaggerated rise that collapses during cooling.
We also added a few drops of wild orange essential oil to intensify the citrus flavour. The only change I’d recommend is reducing the sugar: the original made a very sweet cake, so I suggest cutting the brown sugar from 175g to about 125g if you prefer a less sweet result.
It looks like there will be more baking ahead: ‘Sunshine’ has been busy raising money for charity by painting pebbles, holding garage and cake sales, and even running a car wash. He’s already planning another cake sale, so I need to buy drawing pins for his posters around the village.
This whole orange cake will certainly be on the sale table. If you make it, let ‘Sunshine’ know what you think in the comments and share a photo on social media with the hashtag #FairyFlour.
Whole Orange & Almond Cake (Gluten-Free)
Pin Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 medium orange – ideally blood orange
- 175 g butter – softened
- 175 g light brown sugar – I suggest cutting this to 125g
- 3 medium free range or organic eggs
- 175 g Free From Fairy gluten-free self raising flour blend
- 50 g ground almonds
- Approx. 5 drops wild orange essential oil (optional)
- Icing sugar for decoration
Instructions
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Butter and line the base and sides of a 23cm round, deep cake tin.
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Cut the orange into slices and remove any pips. Place the orange slices, butter, sugar, eggs, flour blend and ground almonds into a food processor.
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Whizz until you have a finely chopped puree, then add the wild orange essential oil if using and process until smooth.
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Pour the batter into the prepared tin and smooth the top.
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Bake in a preheated oven at 190°C (170°C fan/gas mark 5) for about 25–30 minutes, until risen and firm. Allow to cool, then dust with icing sugar to serve.
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