Gluten Free Orange Poppyseed Cake Recipe

Happy Foodie Friday everyone!

Where did this week go, I can't believe it's the weekend already.

I have been wanting to share this recipe for a Gluten Free Orange Poppyseed Cake for awhile now. I should add that it is also Butter Free. It does have eggs so I don't think it can qualify as being Vegan.

Anyway, I managed to get this baked yesterday. Might I say it is a good way to use up some oranges too (it uses 4 oranges). This cake also uses almond meal instead of flour and is extremely easy to bake. No creaming of butter and sugar at all. I also really love the moist texture it has. 

I have been seeing a lot of tutorials for piping roses on cakes lately. This one in particular from I am Baker. It really made me want to give it a go. I also bought these food rings from TK Maxx recently and wanted to try them out.

The idea was to bake a full sized cake and use the food rings to cut out 3 mini cakes and pipe them with roses. For some reason I didn't follow the buttercream recipe from the tutorial but decided to be too clever and try a different recipe for Royal Icing. The icing came out well, piping the roses were fine too but they did not hold their shape well at all. It is very disheartening to see nicely piped roses turn to round blobs before your eyes. I didn't know what to do and in my frustrated state, just wound up spreading them clumsily over the top of the cakes.

I sat down sulking and deciding whether to throw everything away or to go out to buy more icing sugar and try again. Then I thought, why not just dress it up with some pretty flowers. Mother Nature to the rescue! Well, she helped as much as she could. Do forgive the messy icing. The cake however is very good. I shall do a post when I finally master the art of piping roses on a cake. Do share any tips you might have with me. Also, have you had any cake decorating failures before? If so, what did you do?

I am going cycling at Kielder Park tomorrow, will be sure to tell you more about my biking excursion in my next post. Until then, have a good weekend ! 

*Update Alert!* I have just linked this recipe up to this super Link Party called Sugar & Slice Sunday Link Party happening over at Sweet 2 Eat Baking. Doesn't that sound like an awesome Sunday Party? How can you say no. :)

Recipe for Gluten Free Orange Poppyseed Cake

Serves 8 / Prep 20 minutes / Baking Time 45 minutes
You will need an 8" Baking Tin
[Note: I have already reduced the sugar content in all my recipes]
Ingredients
2 Oranges
6 Eggs
250gm Almond Meal
160gm Castor Sugar
50gm Poppy Seeds
1 tsp Baking Powder

For the Orange Syrup
2 Oranges (juice only)
100gm Icing Sugar
100ml Water
[Note: You can use the zest of the oranges, especially if you are not icing the cake for decoration. However, I didn't use them here as I don't favor the bitter taste!]

Method

1. Line your baking tin with parchment paper and pre-heat your oven to 160°C. 

2. Boil Oranges for an hour until they are soft. Next, cut the boiled oranges into quarters, removing any seeds and blend to a fine pulp.

3. In a bowl, whisk eggs and sugar together. Be careful not to overwhisk as it can cause the cake to sink. Just whisk until the eggs and sugar are evenly combined. It should take 1-2 minutes.

4. Once whisked, fold in Almond Meal, Poppyseed, Baking Powder and Orange Pulp.

5. Pour the mixture into your baking tin and bake for 45 minutes. 

6. While the cake is baking, make the Orange Syrup. In a pan, put the icing sugar, orange juice and water together and bring to the boil. Once it starts to boil, reduce heat and simmer until the mixture reduces to a syrup consistency.

7. Once the cake is baked, remove from oven and leave to cool for about 10 minutes. Pour the syrup over the cake and leave to rest. Once cooled, remove cake from baking tin and decorate as you like.