Sunday, February 3, 2013

Vegan flourless orange cake


Another day another dicey experiment...

One of the girls in my team had her birthday on Saturday. She is guten free and vegan, so I thought I would try my hand at a GF vegan cake. Having been sick for the last few days I was somewhat disorganised with limited ingredients to hand. So I opted for this orange cake which has very few ingredients and is pretty easy to make.

Ingredients
  • 3 medium oranges
  • 3 tbs chia or flax  seeds
  • 9 tbsp water 
  • 1 cup caster sugar
  • 3 cups almond meal
  • 1 tsp gluten-free baking powder

Orange Syrup
  • 1 orange
  • 3/4 cup caster sugar

Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 170°C. Brush a round 22cm springform pan with melted butter to lightly grease. Line base with non-stick baking paper.
  2. Place the oranges in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil over medium heat. Cook for 15 minutes or until tender. Drain. Return to pan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil and cook for 15 minutes (this will reduce the bitterness of the peel). Refresh under cold water. Drain. Coarsely chop oranges. Remove and discard any seeds.
  3. Place the orange in a food processor until smooth.
  4. Soak the chia seeds in water for 15 minutes. (This is a great egg substitute)
  5. Add sugar and chia seeds to the orange mixture and mix well. 
  6. Add the orange mixture to the almond meal and baking powder and gently fold until just combined. Pour into prepared pan.
  7. Bake for 50 mins or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Set aside for 15 minutes to cool.
  8. To make the orange syrup, juice orange and pur into a saucepan with sugar. 
  9. Place over low heat and stir for 2-3 minutes or until the sugar dissolves and the syrup thickens.
  10. Turn cake onto a serving plate. Use a skewer to gently prick the top. Spoon over syrup. 
The original recipe for this cake uses eggs. Without the eggs this cake didn't rise and crumbled a little when I took off the tin, but otherwise looks edible! I will update post with the taste verdict tomorrow.

OMG this cake was so moist and tasty! If you like zesty oranges, this is the cake for you! Everyone loved this cake, it was a hit! With 3 GF and 3 vegans in our team at work it was a real hit! 


4 comments:

  1. I've made this one twice now. It's great. I use the leftovers from making almond milk. The one I made last night I put the 2 cups of almond milk byproduct with an additional half a cup of old meal I found in the pantry (to use it up). I boosted the dry ingredients with about half a cup of coconut flour (to help the binding). I also added a tablespoon of oil (I think this helps the texture). I was making the cake for a friend who has gestational diabetes so I subbed out 1/2 a cup of caster sugar for 1/4 cup of stevia. When I mixed it all together it was a little dry, so I added a 1/4 cup of apple sauce to loosen it up a little. Oh- and my partner insisted I put poppyseeds in so a tablespoon of those joined the mix at some point! I baked as directed for 50 minutes, but it wasn't nearly as done, so it went it for almost another hour with the temperature up a little until it started to come together. The mix takes a lot longer to firm up without eggs, so next time I will reduce the amount of liquid and I think that might speed up the baking time. Last time I made this (last week, lol!) I added in polenta, but otherwise made as directed. I topped with a passionfruit syrup and fresh raspberries.... OMG! so good. I think I'll be making this one a lot! :)

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  2. FYI butter to brush round the pan isn’t vegan

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