Let's have a slice of cake, shall we?
I've never been a big cake fan, probably because I hate frosting. I think the frosting that comes on store bought cakes is probably of the worst food invention ever. It makes me cringe just thinking about it. So sweet, it's disgusting I just hate it. With every molecule in my body.
Okay, so yeah, you get it. Frosting totally skeeves me out.
But cakes with no frosting? And are light, cakey and moist? Now I can get down with that. Which is exactly what this almond flour cake is.
I'm a total novice when it comes to baking with almond flour, but this almond flour cake is sensational. It's inspired by a recipe from Food52 (don't they just have the best recipes!?), with a few tweaks that make it more me (as in, I added some quinoa flour).
The recipe called for lemon, but a few days ago, I found some amazing blood oranges at the market that I couldn't walk by without grabbing. It was a no brainer to use them in a cake, and this recipe for lemon almond flour cake sounded perfect.
The result is seriously amazing. The cake is light, super moist, with a gentle orange flavor, and it's healthy. I think I see many more almond flour cakes in our future, my friends.
Blood Orange & Almond Flour Cake
Ingredients
- 4 large eggs
- 1/4 cup honey
- Zest of 1 blood orange
- 1/4 cup blood orange juice about 1 1/2 oranges
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1/4 cup millet flour
- 1/4 cup quinoa flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line an 8" springform pan with parchment paper. My trick is to release the bottom of the pan, cover it with parchment paper, then snap the pan back together and trim the excess. Spray the sides and bottom of the pan with cooking spray and set aside.
- In the bowl of a standup mixer, fit with the whisk attachment, whisk together the eggs and honey until they're fluffy and have turned a pale yellow. Add the remaining wet ingredients and beat well.
- In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Add to the mixer bowl and mix until just combined.
- Transfer the batter to the greased pan and bake for 45 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool the cake before removing the springform pan.
- Slice and serve with whipped cream, ice cream, fresh berries, drizzle of honey, etc.
- Enjoy!
Nutrition
Hi,
Thank you so much for the low-sweet healthy recipe.
I made this cake with Navel oranges. I just doubled the ingredients and baked in a square pan with few changes.
I just replaced quinoa flour by millet flour, olive oil by coconut oil and honey with raw sugar. I skipped vanilla and replaced baking powder with baking soda and lemon juice.
Also i measured the flours (240 g almond flour and 135 g red millet flour). But my batter was too thin, so i added 2 Tbsp coconut flour in the final batter.
The cake was very fluffy, light and tasty with less sweet. We loved it. But i felt some dryness (may be due to the coconut flour or little overdone). So for next time, I am thinking of pouring 1/2 cup orange juice in the hot cake with holes or is there any possibility to reduce the liquids to the batter to skip or reduce the coconut flour?
Sounds amazing!!
Is there another flour that I can use instead of millet flour? Do you think it will affect the texture to much to use coconut instead of millet flour, or to use twice the amount of quinoa flour? What would be a good substitute for millet flour?
Yep, there sure is! You can use another gluten-free flour like sorghum or even just double the quinoa. Millet has a really great flavor, but I think texture wise, quinoa would be the closest. Coconut flour is a beast of it’s own and you really can’t substitute it for any other flour. It’s just one of those flours that needs to be used exactly as called for or you’re going to have to play around with all the liquid ingredients. Would love to know if you give the cake a shot. It’s really delicious!! 🙂
I can hear my almond flour calling to me from the pantry…this cake looks so good! When I was a kid, I always skipped out on my friend’s bday cake and never even ate my own bday cake due entirely because of the frosting. When I did eat it, I scraped every last bit of frosting off first. Glad you have similar taste and now, I’ve got to bake this cake!
You cake looks beautiful! I love the orange/almond combo!
Thanks so much , Cassidy!!
I remember us talking about this cake!! Looks like it turned out BEAUTIFULLY! Also grocery store cake is so disgusting and sweet because its made with a 1:1 ratio of confectioners sugar and Crisco… I remember we had to use it in baking class and I was like UMMM NO THANKS
Hey, thanks for linking to my almond flour baking article. YOur cake looks lovely and light. I do like frosting, but I can get down with a cake that doesn’t have any!