Easy Flourless Chocolate and Orange Cake

Flourless Chocolate and Orange Cake is a take on Claudia Roden’s, famous Orange and almond cake. This cake is incredibly moist, and is delicious served with ice cream, cream or a little marmalade thinned with orange juice as a sauce.

Roden first introduced this interesting cake in her 1968 cookbook, ‘Book of Middle Eastern Food’. The cake was originally created for passover, hence the use of almond meal (flour) instead of wheat flour.

This recipe has been adapted by the fabulously talented Valli Little from Delicious magazine in Australia. Sadly, Valli passed away in 2017 but this esteemed writer, journalist, recipe editor and prolific cookbook author has left us all with thousands of dependable recipes.

Valli has kept Claudia’s recipe but added cocoa powder, and we added Dutch processed cocoa powder for the depth of colour.

At a Glance This Is What You Need To Make Easy Flourless Chocolate and Orange Cake

Oranges

We used navel oranges for this cake. Navels are a deliciously sweet orange with less tang than a Valencia orange. You could substitute mandarins when making this flourless chocolate orange cake for an equally delicious but different cake.

Boiling The Oranges

The cake has an unusual step of boiling the oranges first till they are soft. Using oranges that weigh around 200g (7 ounces) each will take a good hour or so. Keep an eye on the water level as you’ll have to top it up as they boil.

Once boiled the oranges are very soft and tender. You simply throw the oranges in a food processor and whizz away.

Cocoa Powder: Regular Versus Dutch

All Cocoa powders are not made equal.

– Natural cocoa powder has a different ph level ( acidity ) to Dutch processed cocoa, so depending on what you are cooking will determine what type of cocoa powder to use. Eg: if baking and the baked goods need to rise then it is important to follow which cocoa powder is called for as they both react differently with different raising agents for example baking powder v baking soda. On the other hand if you are just making an icing or baked goods that do not need to rise then feel free to use either variety. Just be aware that both varieties taste different from each other.

Food Processor

You can use a food processor to make the cake, or a stick blender will do the same job. If you don’t have either you can hand chop the orange segments as they are incredibly soft after boiling and the skin is very tender.

Either way the cake is ready to bake in minutes after boiling the oranges.

Freezing This Flourless Chocolate and Orange Cake

This moist cake will freeze like a dream. You can freeze it whole or cut into slices so you’ll have a delicious dessert or lunch box addition.

Once the cake is completely cooled wrap the cake well in plastic wrap and freeze for up to three months. Allow about 30-40 minutes for the cake slices to thaw.

Watch How To Make our Flourless Chocolate and Orange Cake

Scroll down below for the Flourless Chocolate and Orange Cake recipe

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What’s your favourite chocolate cake recipe? We would love to hear from you in the comments below when you make this delicious Flourless Chocolate and Orange cake.

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Yield: 12 serves

Chocolate and Orange Cake

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

This cake is one very easy cake to make. The time spent boiling the oranges is the longest part of an otherwise quick to put together cake.

It can be made in a food processor and is incredibly moist, chocolaty and infused, and scented with orange. It's perfect served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or softly whipped cream.

Print

Ingredients

• 2 whole oranges weighing around 200g (7 oz) each, (we used Australian navel oranges)
• 6 large eggs
• 250g (9 ounces) caster sugar
• 2 1/2 cups almond meal (almond flour)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder 
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
• 1/2 cup Dutch processed cocoa powder, plus extra to dust

Instructions

• place whole oranges in a saucepan and cover with cold water
• bring to the boil over medium-high heat, then reduce heat to a rolling simmer (you can place a small side plate on top of the oranges to keep them submerged)
• simmer for an hour or so or until very soft (top up the water level as necessary)
• remove oranges and cut into quarters removing any pips and allow to cool slightly
• preheat oven to 180c (355f) on bake, not fan
• grease the base and sides, and line the base of a 22cm (8 1/2 inch) springform pan with baking paper
• turn your food processor on and feed the orange quarters into the bowl of the food processor
• add eggs, then sugar, almond meal (flour), cocoa, baking powder and baking soda and blend, scrape down the sides of the bowl and blend till smooth
• pour batter into your pan, and then tap the pan 2 or 3 times on the bench ( to settle any air pockets)
• bake for 45 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean
• cool for 10 minutes, then run a knife around the outside of the pan
• release cake and allow to cool completely on a cake rack
• dust with cocoa powder
• serve and enjoy!

Try not to spill your cocoa powder over your foot whilst dusting the finished cake!

Notes

• cake keeps well for 5 days refrigerated
• cake can be frozen

Nutrition Information

Yield

12

Serving Size

1
Amount Per Serving Calories 198Total Fat 14gSaturated Fat 2gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 12gCholesterol 93mgSodium 77mgCarbohydrates 11gFiber 4gSugar 3gProtein 9g

Nutritional information provided here is only intended as a guide.

Cooper

So as the weather has started to cool, Cooper has taken up residence in front of the fire. Happy to lay for hours snuggled up. What a life!