Orange and almond cake

Gluten-free cooking p.116
Serves 6-10 (depending on slice size)
Preparation / Cooking time: about 3h 30m all told (2h if using a pressure cooker)

This recipe comes from Michael Cox's Great Healthy Food: Gluten-Free (London: Carroll & Brown, 2000). It is delicious: soft and moist, with the strong orange flavour sitting very nicely alongside the subtler taste of almond. It is well worth the effort of the longish cooking time, though since the first two hours merely involve boiling the oranges, you aren't tethered to the kitchen for all that time.

A word of warning: this is one of those recipes where it makes a big difference if you leave it in too long. Check it on the dot of 60m to see if it is done (or five minutes earlier if your oven tends to be too hot); it may need a bit extra, but if it is ready at this stage it should be taken out immediately.

Ingredients
Butter for greasing
2 large oranges
6 eggs, medium-sized, separated
250g caster sugar [use less if you don't have a sweet tooth]
225g ground almonds [or a tad more if you reduce the sugar]

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C, gas mark 4 [don't actually do this right at the beginning, as the cake won't be going into the oven for a couple of hours yet]. Grease a 23cm non-stick cake tin which has a removable base. Cut a circle of parchment to fit the base, grease it with melted butter and use to line the base.

2. Place the whole, unpeeled oranges into a saucepan of water and boil for 2 hours until completely soft. Alternatively, cook them in a pressure cooker for half an hour.

3. Remove from the pan and cool slightly. Then cut them open and remove the pips. Place the oranges in a food processor and blend with the egg yolks. Alternatively, mash the oranges with a fork and whisk with the egg yolks in a mixing bowl.

4. Add the sugar and ground almonds to the orange and egg mixture, a little at a time, and continue blending until all the ingredients are well-combined. Transfer to a large bowl.

5. Beat the egg whites until stiff in a separate bowl. Now fold these carefully into the orange mixture.

6. Pour the cake mixture into the prepared tin and bake in the preheated oven for 60–70 minutes. Use the skewer test to ensure the cake is cooked through. When cooked, remove from the oven and allow to cool before turning out.

7. Run a knife around the edge of the cake to loosen it from the sides of the tin, turn out on to a plate and remove the lining paper. The cake may be iced with orange flavoured butter icing or marmalade sauce, or seved with crème fraîche, mascarpone cheese or fresh strawberries.

© Michael Cox; Carroll & Brown Publishers Ltd.