Almond cake with orange and apricot
This almond cake with orange and apricot is totally flourless. But not only is it gluten-free, it can also be dairy-free too if you use pure vegetable margarine e.g. sunflower. It’s very moist, so I just dust it with icing sugar and sprinkle some orange zest over it, but you can spread butter-cream on the top or glaze it with some orange syrup. It’s perfect for afternoon tea and kids’ parties!
Ingredients
Method
- Pour the orange juice into a jug and add enough cold water to make 250 ml liquid.
- Add the apricots to a pan, pour in the juice. Bring to the boil, then cook for 10 minutes until the apricots become soft. Cool, then blend it into a smooth purée.
- With an electric whisk beat the butter, sugar and orange zest. Add the eggs one-by-one, whisk gently.
- Stir in the purée, then gently fold in the ground almonds, polenta and baking powder.
- Grease and line the base of a cake tin (about 22 cm).
- Tip the batter into the tin and even out the surface.
- Bake for about 45 minutes in a preheated oven at 180°C.
- Insert a skewer into the middle, if it comes out clean, the cake is cooked through. If not, bake it for another 5-10 more minutes. Do the skewer test again.
- Leave the baked cake in the tin to cool for about 10 minutes then turn it onto a wire rack.
- Let it cool completely before serving.