Despite mum and me deciding we were going to go healthy, with Mother’s day upon us and guests coming over, baking was inevitable. Often, I am on the lookout for a dessert recipe that is satisfying but doesn’t go overboard in terms of excess sugar and fat and well, all the other naughty stuff that goes into a cake.
Recently I had bought a dessert book, Wild Sugar Desserts that is filled with desserts that fit this criteria. One of the desserts that stood out was the Orange Yoghurt Cake topped with the Candied Oranges. Although not being gluten-free, I tweaked the recipe for a few ingredients to ensure that it ticked all the boxes for gluten-free and most of the boxes for being healthy. The cake is dense and moist with a lovely crumb. It’s not too sweet although I tweaked the amount of sugar I added. I also used coconut sugar. I wanted to use a sugar that wasn’t as refined as caster sugar and raw sugar. I had never baked with this before but was informed of its great taste and nutritional properties which made me jump on top of it. Word of advice, don’t get a spoon and eat it out of the bag, it’s that delicious.
Orange, Almond and Yoghurt Cake
Gluten Free, Serves 16
Recipe is adapted from Wild Sugar Desserts
300 grams softened organic butter
1 cup of Loving Earth coconut sugar
3 organic eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
3 teaspoons orange zest
1/2 cup freshly squeeze orange juice
1/2 cup sour cream or cream fraiche
1/2 cup organic greek yoghurt
2 cups of gluten-free flour
1 cup of almond meal
1 tablespoon baking soda
Pinch of Himalayan sea salt
1. Line 22cm springform tin with baking paper and preheat oven to 160 degrees celsius
2. Cream butter and coconut sugar for approximately 5 minutes
3. Add eggs, beating well after each addition
4. Add vanilla bean paste and orange zest
5. Mix together yoghurt and sour cream in a separate bowl
6. Mix together flour, almond meal, sea salt and baking soda in a separate bowl
7. Add 1/3 flour mixture, then 1/3 yoghurt mixture then 1/3 of the orange juice, mixing after each addition until all is gone. Make sure not to overbeat
8. Pour into springform tin and flatten the top out
9. Bake in oven for approximately 45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Mine started to brown a bit too much so I added a foil tent to ensure that the top didn’t burn
10. When cake is cooked, take out of oven and place tin on a wire rack to cool, meanwhile make the orange syrup
SYRUP
1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
2 tablespoons of raw sugar
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
2 tablespoons or Cointreau
1. Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to the boil for 4 minutes. Simmer until syrupy and pour into cake and let soak in. If you want, dress with candied citrus.
CANDIED CITRUS
1 organic orange, sliced 3 mm thick
1 organic lemon, sliced 3mm thick
250gram caster sugar
100ml water
In a heavy based saucepan add the water and sugar. Stir over low heat until dissolved. Bring to the boil and reduce heat, simmer for 10 minutes. Add the citrus and simmer for a further 10-15 minutes or until translucent. Remove with tongs and arrange onto cake. Spoon the syrup over the cake.
ENJOY! Oh, and go out and buy the book, it’s fab.
