Flour Less and Butter Less Orange Almond Cake with Orange Cinnamon Glaze: no I’m not repeating the title. I’m actually revisiting my memories of the flavor and essence from the previous night. Few days back I baked Butter-free and Sugar-free Coffee Walnut Cake and when it came to the dinner table with the tag Bhatty said jokingly, why not try even four-less one. Since then the idea got struck in my mind. After a little research I realized it is actually a brilliant concept to try. But please don’t tell Bhatty that I’m actually appreciating his idea.
Finally yesterday I finalized what I wanted to do to start ‘the Flour Less project’ and landed here with the aroma and flavors all over my house.And top of all Valentine’s Day is only 2 weeks ahead so this dessert is going to rock the dinner table but not the body fat 😉 That’s why I served them in cute bowls with scoop of ice-cream.
Few days back I started asking people about what they will like to see on SV and surprisingly I came up with the conclusion Dessert which I actually hardly make. But as many of my friends personally informed me they like more my desserts I couldn’t show them my back and promised to make more of it. That’s why I’m back with a dessert so quickly. And I think I’m actually enjoying baking more than cooking; be it cakes or cookies.
Hope soon I’ll lay my hands on other things too. But that’s a long run dream. For now the recipe of the salivating Flour Less and Butter Less Orange Almond Cake with Orange Cinnamon Glaze.
It is strongly recommended that you read tips before you start baking.
Preparation Time: 30 mins
Cooking Time: 40 mins (baking) + 5 mins (cooling) + 5 mins (glazing)
Total Time: 1hr 20 mins
Yield: 6 wedges or 18 slices for serving
Ingredients:
Grounded almond : 1 cups (See Tips)
Semolina : 1 cup (See Tips)
Caster sugar : 1 cup (See Tips)
Olive oil : 3 tbsp (See Tips)
Orange : 1, medium
Orange juice : ½ cup (See Tips)
Milk : 1 cup
Egg : 2
Egg : 2
Baking soda : 1 tsp
Flour : 1 tbsp + 1 tsp (for dusting only)
Raisin : 1 cup
Chopped almond : ¼ cup
Strawberry cheesecake ice-cream : 1 scoop per serving (optional) (See Tips)
For the Glaze :
Orange juice: 1 cup
Sugar : ½ cup
Chopped almond : ½ cup
Cinnamon powder : 1 tsp
Preparation:
Dry roast the semolina for 2 mins on medium flame or until fragrant. Don’t brown them at all. Spread on a flat palate to cool down a bit. Once cool sieve and sift the semolina, almond and baking soda together in a large mixing bowl.
Peel the orange and reserve the orange zest. If you are using fresh oranges for the juice, squeeze them and keep the juice separately and use the pulp for the puree. Deseed the rest orange and roughly chop. Blend into a puree by using blender.
Take a medium mixing bowl and mix chopped almond and raisin with 1 tbsp of flour and keep aside.
Beat half of the milk, oil and sugar together with an electric mixer on medium-low speed for 2 mins or until sugar is dissolved completely. Crack the eggs the continue beating with electric beater on medium speed for 2 mins or until mixture is really fluffy and pale in color. Add the pulps and orange zest and keep mixing for another 1 min.
Put the sieve on the top of the mixing bowl and re-sift the semolina-almond mixture and try to mix in the shape of ‘8’. In the beginning it will feel like impossible to mix them up but gradually it will end up to smooth thick batter. Pour orange juice little by little and keep mixing. Once done with the orange juice start adding rest half of the milk little by little to avoid lumps. Don’t over mix it.
Now prepare the baking pan by greasing with butter or oil and dusting with flour. Or you can line in parchment paper or any grease proof paper. Preheat the oven to 1800C. Pour half of the cake batter into the prepared baking pan, level off with the spatula. Now arrange the flour coated raisin and chopped almond on the top. Make sure the surface is completely cover with dry fruits. Again pour the rest of the cake batter on the top. Level it off.
Bake at 1800C for 40 mins or until skewer comes out with dry crumbs only from the middle of the cake. Allow it to stand by for additional 10 minutes inside the oven. Take out from the oven after 10 mins and transfer on the wire rack to cool a bit. .
While the cake is baking prepare the glaze as the glaze will be poured on the warm cake. Combine orange juice, sugar and cinnamon powder in a steel bowl and bring it to boil on medium high flame. Stir constantly to avoid burning. Once the consistency is just about a syrup remove immediately from the flame and stir in chopped almonds. Allow it to cool a bit or until it’s touchable. Pour the syrup on warm cake evenly.
Now slice the cake according to your need or choice and serve with a scoop of your favorite ice-cream like I used strawberry cheesecake ice-cream.
Tips:
1. Any almond meal can be used instead of grounded almond.
2. If you have no issues with flour, use 1:1 all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour. In-fact you can use only all-purpose flour too without any almond meal or semolina.
3. I used fine semolina but regular one will also work well with the recipe.
4. Golden sugar is best for this recipe but any regular sugar works fine with it. You can try to swap this part with golden honey. As I already had taken the risk with flour and butter I dint dare for the sugar too. But if you wish go ahead and Do let me know how that experiment was.
5. This recipe requires fruity flavor olive oil but I couldn’t find them anywhere around so I opted for regular light olive oil and I never realized any difference in the cake.
6. It is advisable to use freshly squeezed juice but canned juice will also work all right.
7. This ice-cream part is completely optional and only for serving. You can opt for any other flavor of your choice. Just keep in mind that the flavor of ice-cream shouldn’t over powder the cake’s flavor.
Beautiful cake Rimli 🙂 looks so so good, i am short of ingredients else will try it today, will sure try this sometime
Wow this cake is totally adorable! Glad you shared it at our Manila Spoon 5K party! Have just joined your lovely site. Hope you can check out Manila Spoon, too! Thanks! – Abby
nice and healthier version of cake
http://great-secret-of-life.blogspot.com
Wow ….