Gluten-Free Chocolate Orange Cake

This recipe is inspired by a cake devised by the celebrator of all things delectably delicious, Nigella Lawson. I’ve played with my own versions of a cake originally featured in her Feast recipe book, mixing in my own,dare I say more wholesome, take.

Ingredients:

2 small oranges

6 free-range eggs

1 heaped teaspoon of baking powder

½ teaspoon of baking soda

2 cups of almond meal

1 ¼ cup of coconut sugar

½ cup of cacao powder

½ teaspoon of cinnamon

¼ teaspoon of salt

Orange peel, edible flowers or icing sugar for decoration

Directions:

1. Put oranges in a pan covered in cold water. Bring to the boil and cook for 2 hours, or until soft.
2. Drain the oranges, and when cool, cut the oranges in half and remove any big pips. Then pulp everything – pith, peel, flesh.
3. Once the oranges are cold, preheat the oven to 180°. Grease and line a 22cm spring form tin.
4. Add the eggs, baking powder, baking soda, almond meal, coconut sugar, cacao and salt into the food processor with the orange. Run the food processor until you have a cohesive cake mix, slightly knobbly with flecks of pureed orange.
5. Pour and scrape into the baking tin and bake for 1 hour.
6.  Check after 45 mins as you may need to cover with foil to prevent burning.
7. Leave the cake to cool in the tin, on a cooling rack. When cool, take out and decorate with either orange zest or dusted cacao or icing sugar. As this is an unicef cake, edible flowers look lovely for a special occasion.

Nutrition Bite: Coconut Sugar – Coconut sugar is a minimally processed natural sweetener that contains small amounts of minerals, fiber and antioxidants. It comes from the sap of the coconut palm (not the actual coconuts!)