Orange Almond Cake

I was inspired to bake this orange almond cake after tasting a similar cake in Morocco. After being in Morocco for two weeks spices are top of mind as I saw them in the markets each day, and our meals were gently spiced with turmeric, ginger, cumin and black pepper. This cake is spiced with Herbies ‘fragrant sweet spices’ which adds a warm, exotic flavour, and the yoghurt cream is flavoured with orange blossom water.

This orange almond cake makes a lovely dessert cake when served with spiced oranges and scented orange blossom cream. The cake is dairy-free and can be made gluten-free by using gluten-free flour in place of wheat flour. The recipe has been slightly adapted from one by Herbies Spices.

Orange Almond Cake

Print Recipe

Course Dessert

Servings 8 slices

Ingredients

Cake batter

6 eggs separated
300 g castor sugar
zest of 2 oranges
200 g almond meal
75 g flour substitute gluten-free flour if necessary
3 tsp Herbies Fragrant Sweet Spices
1/2 cup orange juice
50 g flaked almonds

To garnish

2-3 tbsp icing sugar
2 tbsp dried edible rose petals optional

Oranges in spiced syrup

1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup water
1 quill/stick cinnamon
2 cardamom pods
3 slices of fresh ginger
2 oranges peeled and segmented, juice reserved

Orange blossom yoghurt cream

300 ml thickened cream
250 g natural yoghurt
1 tsp orange blossom water, or to taste

Instructions

Cake

Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and line a 24cm springform cake pan.
Place the egg yolks, sugar and zest in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until thick, pale and creamy.
Add the almond meal, flour, spice mix and orange juice to the bowl and mix on low speed until just combined.
Beat egg whites with a pinch of sugar until medium peaks form. When you lift the whisk out of the whites a peak will hold its shape but the whites are not stiff. Carefully fold the egg whites into the almond mixture until well combined.
Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and scatter over the flaked almonds. Bake for 1 hour or until lightly golden and firm to touch. You can also test it is cooked by inserting a skewer in the centre of the cake, if it comes out clean it is ready. Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool on a wire rack.
Dust with icing sugar and scatter with rose petals if using, then transfer to a serving plate. Cut into wedges and serve with oranges in spiced syrup and orange blossom cream.

Oranges in spiced syrup

Place the sugar, honey, water, orange juice (from the segmented oranges), cinnamon, cardamom and ginger in a saucepan. Place over medium heat and stir often until the sugar is dissolved. Increase heat and simmer until reduced by half and it has a syrupy consistency.
Remove from heat and allow to cool. Add orange segments to the syrup.