By Andrea Cullen
Take 1 on 19th June 2014
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Gluten and dairy free 🙂
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Ready in 1 hour 55 mins
This cake was birthed out of a kitchen disaster when I was having problems chopping the cooked oranges in the blender for the original Spanish orange and almond cake recipe when pieces of the plastic spatula ended up in the orange mixture. Needless to say I didn’t want to poison my friends calling over to afternoon coffee so I had to start again. I had no more oranges left so lemons and raspberries came to the rescue!! This is a wonderfully moist and tasty cake, as is the original recipe found on http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/2758/spanish-orange-and-almond-cake.aspx. Both cakes are wonderful for a party and keep fresh for several days; in fact they get better after a day or two.
I must admit that take 1 version of this cake flopped a little which I hadn’t expected as the Spanish orange almond cake holds really well and comes out looking like this:
Whereas mine has dropped a little since coming out of the oven; we are doing the taste test tomorrow so I will let you know!
When entertaining I suggest serving the almond cakes with whipped cream, ice-cream, cream cheese frosting or if you have the patience and time and would like to stay gluten and dairy free then Coconut Cream Frosting from Elana’s pantry. This frosting tastes delicious slathered on your slice of cake if you fancy the ultimate in indulgence. I am not a big fan of agave syrup so I do want to have a play around with this frosting recipe at some time to see if I can use a sweetening alternative that still creates a frosting consistency. Trust me, this frosting is to die for and when cooled (I often speed cool it in the freezer) it does magically turn into a frosting! This frosting lasts in the fridge for weeks; a handy treat that may need to be quarantined after the party to prevent you going back for more.
Ingredients
- Serves: 10
- 1 1/2 to 2 unwaxed organic lemons depending on how tart you would like the cake to taste – scrubbed and roughly chopped (with skin)
- Small punnet of raspberries – washed and left to dry (important that there is no water remaining)
- 5 eggs, separated
- 200 g (7 oz) caster sugar
- 225 g (8 oz) ground organic almonds
- 2 tablespoons flaked almonds
- Sifted icing sugar to decorate
Here is a neat video demonstrating a novel way to separate eggs!
Directions
- Put the chopped lemons in a small saucepan, discarding any pips. Add 1 tablespoon water, then cover and cook gently for 30 minutes or until the lemons are soft and excess liquid has evaporated. Leave to cool.
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC (350ºF, gas mark 4). Line the bottom and sides of a 23 cm (9 in) springform cake tin with baking parchment/ greaseproof paper.
- Finely chop the lemons in a food processor or blender, or with a large knife.
- Put the egg whites in a large bowl and whisk until they form stiff peaks. Gradually whisk in half the caster sugar, then whisk for 1 minute.
- Using the same whisk, whisk the egg yolks with the remaining caster sugar in another bowl for 2–3 minutes or until pale and quite thick. Whisk in the finely chopped lemons and raspberries, then carefully fold in the ground almonds.
- Stir in 3 spoonfuls of the whisked egg white to loosen the mixture, then gently fold in the remaining whites with a large metal spoon or the mixer head (by hand). Transfer the mixture to the prepared tin and level the top. Sprinkle with the flaked almonds.
- Bake for 50–55 minutes or until the cake is golden and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Check the cake after 20 minutes and again at 30 minutes, and cover lightly with foil if it is browning too quickly. I find that my cake tin makes a tall cake that requires closer to 60 to 70 minutes.
- Leave the cake to cool in the tin, then turn it out, peel away the lining paper and transfer to a serving plate. Dust with icing sugar before serving. The cake can be kept in an airtight tin for up to 2 days.
Enjoy!
Love
Andrea
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