‘To improve your zest for life, fill it with vitamin C’s – Courage, Cheerfulness, Confidence, Creativity’
This recipe is from Claudia Roden as featured in her book, ‘Middle Eastern Recipes’ in 1968. Roden explains that it was popular among Sephardic Jews who brought it to the Middle East in the 15thcentury. The cake has since become a classic in cuisines from Spain to Iran.
Whilst the recipe looks like it takes time to make, it is actually very hands off. You need to boil the oranges for an hour, and then blend everything together. Boiling the oranges rather than using the zest or raw juice, gives a far superior flavour and makes for a sweet aroma.
The cake is flour free and so gluten free if you use gluten free baking powder. It’s high in protein, vitamins and minerals, due to the egg and almonds.
After reading a lot of comments on the various versions of this recipe, it looks like you can substitute the sugar if you’d prefer. Maple syrup, honey and sucanat seemed to have been used with success.
Whilst Mr B has a sweet tooth, even he agreed I could take down the sugar content to make it more like a typical genoise and a good on the go breakfast treat.
Ingredients
Serving: 1, 9-inch cake
- 2 organic oranges
- 6 organic, free range eggs
- 250g blanched almonds, ground
- 250g organic cane sugar
- 1 tsp GF baking powder
- ½ tsp coconut oil
Method
- Boil the oranges, covered for an hour or until they are soft inside
- Drain and once cooled, remove skin and seeds and blend till smooth
- Preheat an oven to 190C/370F. Oil and flour a baking tin with GF flour, this will help the cake come out clean at the end
- Add the eggs to a bowl and whisk. Add the ground almonds, sugar, baking powder, blended oranges and mix well to combine
- Place in an oven for 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean*
*This recipe produces a moist cake with as the author notes, a texture in-between a cake and a pudding. If you want to firm it up, cook a little longer. The more you cook it, the more it will caramelize and brown due to the orange, so that is your trade off.
