Bittersweet Orange Flourless cake

I'm baking this cake for several reasons...

Most importantly, this cake is baked to remember Daffodil Day. In Australia, Daffodil Day is a major fundraising event for raising essential funds for cancer research, prevention and support services. On this day, I would like to commemorate an important person of my life who has passed away due to cancer.

This person loves yellow flowers very much and even had yellow flowers for her wedding bouquet. Seeing daffodil blooming at this time of the year reminds me a lot of this person. The person is my mum. "Mummy, I miss you."

Last year, I've started this blog, baking cupcakes for Daffodil Day fund raising. A year has passed and I'm amazed that I have learned so much for my first year of extensive baking and food blogging. Happy 1st blogiversary to me!

Prior to my blogging days, I have baked orange flourless cake before for more than a couple of times and love this bittersweet cake for lots of reasons. Good to know that there is no fats or oil added into this cake. It has lots of great flavours and goodness from orange, almond, vanilla and cardamon, and we (including my toddler son) simply love it for its bittersweet taste. However, if you prefer a sweet syrupy version of this cake, you may wish to stick to its original recipe as I have reduced the total amount of sugar by 130g which is more than 1/2 cup of sugar.

 

A Daffodil Day pin that I bought from the fund raising booth

Here's the recipe from Australian women's weekly mini cookbook, Cafe Cakes
(with my modification in blue)

2 small orange (360g)
1 1/2 cup almond kernel (240g) (replace with almond meal)
1 cup caster sugar (220g) (reduce to 150g)
6 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla essence (replace with vanilla seeds scraped from 1 vanilla pod)

Citrus syrup
1/2 cup (110g) caster sugar (reduce to 50g)
1/4 cup (60ml) lime juice*
1/4 cup (60ml) water*
(my addition: 1/4 tsp ground cardamon)

*Both replace with freshly squeezed juice from 3/4 of a large navel orange and thinly slice the rest of 1/4 orange for the syrup.

Grease deep 20cm round cake pan (I use a 22 cm springform pan instead), line base with baking paper. Place whole orange in medium saucepan; cover oranges with hot water. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, simmer,covered about 2 hrs or until oranges are tender.

Replenish water with boiling water as it evaporates. Drain oranges, cool; discard water. Preheat oven to moderately slow.

Blend or process almonds and sugar until almonds are chopped coarsely; transfer mixture to medium bowl. Quarter whole oranges, discard seeds; blend or process until smooth. With motor operating, add eggs one at a time, process until combined. Add almond mixture, baking powder and essence; process until just combined. Spread mixture into prepared pan; bake in moderately slow oven (my oven temperature is 160° fan forced) for about 1 hr.

Pour hot citrus syrup over hot cake in pan. Stand cake in pan for 30 min. Turn cake onto wire rack over tray. Serve warm or cold with caramelized orange and lime rind, if desired.

Citrus syrup: Combine ingredients in small saucepan; stir over heat without boiling until sugar dissolves. Simmer uncovered without stirring about 5 min or until slightly thickened.

Happy Baking
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