Orange and Almond Cake (Middle Eastern)

[mific]

Prep Time: 2 hrs  | Cook Time: 1 hr  | Total Time: 3 hrs  | Servings: 8 

 

Description:

A delicious Middle Eastern flavoured cake variously said to be Israeli or Egyptian. It's low carb and keto-friendly (if made with erythritol), and able to be made all in one food processor, cutting down the washing up. One of my favourites.

 

Ingredients:

2 oranges

6 eggs

3 cups ground almonds (almond meal, not fine-ground flour)

1½ cups sugar or erythritol

1 heaped tsp baking powder

 

1 tsp of fresh ground cardamom, or

8 cardamom pods worth of seeds, ground, or

1 tsp of cardmom seeds, ground

 

Directions:

Rinse the oranges and remove any bit of stem, then put them, whole and unpeeled, in a large pot, cover with water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until very soft (1.5 hours). Drain and set aside for half an hour to cool then put the whole oranges, skin and all, in a food processor and whizz on bursts to form a purée.

 

Preheat oven to 170°C/340°F fanbake. Grease the sides of a 22-23cm/9in springform cake tin and line the base with baking paper.

Break the eggs into a bowl (safer as you can remove any bits of shell before adding to the processor). Add them and all the other ingredients to the processor and process on bursts. Remove top and scrape/stir in any unmixed bits, then give it another burst. The mixture will be quite wet.

Pour into prepared cake tin and bake until it's set and a skewer or sharp knife inserted into the middle comes out clean (about 1 hour).

If the cake is still very wet, cook a little longer, but it's moister if not overcooked so check it after 45 min, and cover the top with foil for most of the cooking time if your oven is small. Allow to cool in tin before running a knife around the edge and turning out. Can store the cake in an airtight container for up to a week.

 

Notes:

Don't be tempted to increase the recipe unless you're planning to make two cakes in succession. This quantity with two oranges will fill up the average food processor. 
 

One good way to be able to make this cake at shorter notice is to simmer some oranges as above then freeze them in sets of two, then thaw each set of oranges when you need them.
 

The cardamom isn't essential but it adds to the middle eastern taste. Either use 3/4 tsp of fresh powdered cardamom that still has all its flavour, or remove the seeds from 8 cardamom pods and grind. I have a supply of the de-husked seeds and I ground up 1 tsp of cardamom seeds in a mortar and pestle. A spice grinder would also work. Alternatively, just omit the cardamom or use 1 tsp ground nutmeg.

 

Source: Combination of various recipes.

 

Comments

[rose_griffes]

Not sure how soon I can try this, but it sounds AMAZING. Hm--need to find cardamom.

[mific]

Indian grocery stores will have cardamom, but bigger supermarkets should have it, too.

[jesse_the_k]

One question: is grinding the almonds in the food processor part of the magic, or have you tried this with almond flour (packaged ground almonds)?

I've tried other recipes with no joy, but this one looks like a winner! (Previous attempts didn't cook the oranges, so there was a lot of bitterness from the skin's oil on skin.)

[mific]

Oh gosh, no, you use almond meal, don't grind them yourself! It's the slightly coarse version of almond flour - we call it meal here - rather than finely ground almond flour. So not flour consistency but a bit coarser.