Orange and coconut cake (gf,df)

It has been two months since I’ve posted anything. It is really hard to find time to bake and post now that I am working almost full time. I finally had some time this week to catch up on the things that I love to do – that is of course baking.

I like to bake according to the seasons and being in Australia, it means that I get one of the best fresh produce. Mandarins and oranges are in season now. Since I’ve made mandarin cakes before, I decided to make orange cakes this time round. The recipe is similar to the mandarin cake recipe, I’ve just added desiccated coconut for that extra flavour. I made this cake last week for a dinner party and I didn’t get much time to take good photos of it before it was devoured completely.

Ingredients for the cake

4 large oranges
5 large eggs
100g caster sugar
200g almond meal
30g desiccated coconut
1 tsp vanilla essence

Directions

Preparation time: 80min
Baking time: 40-45min or until the top is just firm if you press on it gently

Carefully lower two unpeeled oranges into a large saucepan of boiling water. Let them bubble gently for about 15 minutes or until they’re soft
Drain the water and then add in a new batch of water to boil the oranges again until they become very soft. This double boiling helps to remove the bitterness of the orange skin.
When the oranges are ready, drain off the water and leave it to cool on a plate
Once they’re cool, halve them and scoop out and discard the seeds then puree them as finely as you can in a food processor. Set the puree aside
Preheat your oven to 170C
Grease a 25cm round cake tin and line the base with baking paper
Peel and slice the remaining two oranges and line the sliced oranges on the base
Put the eggs and sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer and beat them on high speed for five minutes or until they’re very light and fluffy.
Turn down the speed of the mixer to a low speed and add in the orange puree, vanilla essence, desiccated coconut and almond meal (the eggs will deflate slightly but don’t worry about it)
Stop the mixer and use a rubber spatula to make sure everything is scraped up from the bottom of the bowl
Pour the batter into the prepared tin
Sit the tin in the oven and bake the cake for about 50-55min or until the top is just firm if you press on it gently.
Remove it to a wire rack and leave the cake to cool in the tin. Once it’s cool, run a blunt knife around the sides of the tin to loosen the cake, then invert it onto a serving plate

There you have it! Gluten free and dairy free orange and coconut cake!