Last week I felt like celebrating my time in Ireland and how lucky I’m to have met so many great people. What better way to celebrate than baking this yummy Flourless Orange Cake with almondmeal to catch up with my Irish friends with a nice cup of tea.
I hope it doesn’t bore you but I wanted to share with you how I ended up living in Dublin. Hopefully it inspires those of you that have been thinking about living abroad. Having spent 2 years here, I have met some lovely people; some have became very close friends, or as I call them my family in Ireland. These are the people that care about you, that enjoy spending time with you and encourage you to keep going. This is Orange Cake is my small gift to celebrate such an amazing time we had together.
To quit my job and move to Dublin was a big change. Even more because I was leaving my job for a 3 month contract. “Are you crazy?!” was the reaction of most people who knew me. I was more afraid than them, but it was a big change; a new language, new friends, far from home and far from people who mean a lot to you. Leaving the people I loved was probably the hardest thing I faced. But I believe there are no good or bad decisions in life. You just have to make up your mind and whatever decision you make you will grow and learn from it. Avoiding making hard decisions is not a good idea as you will remain stagnant. Decide what you want and go for it! You can start with a small challenge by making this delicious Flourless Orange cake, I hope you do because I can tell you it tastes amazing.
This recipe is inspired by a cake that I tried in a food photography workshop by Gary Jordan and Erica Ryan. Apart from learning a lot she prepared a lovely lunch, every dish looked fantastic obviously but I was blown away by her Orange Almond cake. Erika said it was full of oranges with no flour or no butter added to it. It was my dream cake. The following day I experimented for hours and the result is this Flourless Orange cake which I am sharing with you today.
My friends loved it and it was the proof I needed to write this post. It tastes just like oranges and almonds, it is nice and moist. It’s the type of cake I love to make; healthy, natural flavours and of course, delicious.
I highly recommend that you try it because it really stands out from other sponge cakes and it tastes really good. No extra expensive ingredients needed. The first step is to boil a couple of oranges and the rest is done in less than 30′. As you can imagine it is gluten and dairy free so everybody can enjoy it.
- 2 (around 350g) oranges, washed and chopped in big pieces (do not remove the skin)
- 5 eggs, separate white and yolk
- 200 g sugar (I used white sugar)
- 200g ground almonds
- 2 Tbsp sliced almonds
- Icing sugar (to decorate)
- Place the chopped oranges in a saucepan, add 2 Tbsp of water. Cover and cook on a low heat for 30' or until softened. You can prepare them in advance and set aside.
- Pre-heat the oven to 180º and grease a loose bottom cake tin (21cm approx.) .
- Blend the cooked oranges in a food processor until pureed.
- Add the egg whites to a bowl and beat until hard pics happen. Stir in half of the sugar slowly and mix carefully with a spoon.
- In another bowl mix the yolks and the rest of the sugar together until they have blended together. Add the orange puree and stir well. Pour in the ground almond and stir again.
- Finally fold in the egg whites carefully, mix gently to make an airy dough. Pour the mixture in your cake tin. Sprinkle some sliced almonds on top. Bake for 50' or until a stick comes out clean. If you think it's starting to burn on the top cover with a piece of tinfoil.
- Leave to cool before you remove from the tin. If you want you can decorate with icing sugar. Share and enjoy it.
Thanks girls for a great evening and to the model Marina. It is nice to have someone to hold the dishes instead of having trying to press the bottom with one hand and hold the dish with the other as I usually do. I look forward to your comments and tag a photo #shoothecook on Instagram. Thanks a lot to all of you = the motivation that keep me going ?
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