Whole Orange Almond Cake

🧂 Ingredients

• 2 large navel oranges
• 6 large eggs

  room temperature
• 1 cup sugar-free sweetener

  or 200 g of caster sugar
• 2.75 cups almond meal

  about 300 g ground almonds
• 1 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder

  heaped
• 2 tablespoons honey

  or orange marmalade
• 50 g almonds

  flaked (2 oz.)
• 1 tablespoon icing sugar

  for sprinkling
• Optional: extra orange for garnish
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 6 basil leaves

  finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ¼ cup Greek yoghurt

  or plain yoghurt
• Extra basil leaves for styling

Instructions

• 1 Ideally, make this cake in a 22-23cm (8-9 inch cake pan but could also be made
  as a loaf or square cake) 
• 2 Prepare the oranges. Wash the oranges but don’t peel them. Place whole oranges
  in a pot and cover them with cold water (they should be completely covered).
  Bring to a boil and cook for 1 hour. 
• 3 Strain and rinse the cooked oranges, then cool slightly so you can handle them. 
• 4 Preheat oven. About now, preheat the oven to 160 C / 320 F (140 C fan). Grease
  and line a cake pan with baking paper. 
• 5 Purée the oranges. Cut into 1-2 cm cubes and remove any seeds. Leave the rind
  on. Place the orange pieces into a food processor or use a stick blender or a
  blender. Blitz on high 3-4 times, scraping down the sides in between until it’s
  pureed. It should be pretty smooth, but it’s okay if you can see a few little
  bits of the rind. Set aside.
• 6 Make the batter. In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs and sweetener until pale and
  frothy (about 2 minutes on high). Add the orange purée and stir through. Add the
  almond meal and baking powder and stir through. 
• 7 Bake cake. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking pan. Bake for 60 minutes or
  until a skewer comes out clean. 
• 8 Toast almonds. In the meantime, add the almond flakes to a small frying pan and
  cook over medium heat until toasted to a golden brown. Start by stirring every
  30 seconds to a minute and then stir more frequently as they start to change
  colour. Set aside to cool. 
• 9 Decorate cake. Remove the cake from the oven and cool it in the tin completely
  before removing it. To finish the cake, spread the honey or marmalade on top of
  the cake into a very thin layer and sprinkle with toasted almonds (they should
  stick to the top better with the sticky honey). You can sprinkle it with a
  little icing sugar but optional. 
• 10 Make basil cream. While the cake is cooling, make the basil cream. Whip the
  cream until thick and fluffy, then add the chopped basil leaves and whip them
  together for 10 seconds or so. Add vanilla and yoghurt and stir in or whisk in.
  Set aside (keep in the fridge if needed).
• 11 Serve the basil cream on the side or you can put a dollop on top of the cake. 

Nutrition Info