Orange & Almond cake
I was looking for something sweet that wasn't going to run up the calories and was going to be at least a little bit heart healthy. That clearly meant reducing the fat content as well as the type of fat, removing the flour and reducing the amount of sugar in the recipe. Obviously it needed to be a cake - a cake that was moist and kept for a good while. A search of Chat Gpt came up with an orange cake substituting flour with ground almonds and using olive oil and not butter or margarine.
Ingredients:
2 whole oranges
200 g ground almonds
4 large eggs
90 g caster sugar
60 ml extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
Pinch of salt
Optional: vanilla essence and/or orange extract
Method:
Put the whole, unpeeled oranges in a saucepan, cover with water and gently simmer for 60–75 minutes, until very soft.
Drain and allow them to cool. Cut them up, remove any pips, then purée the entire oranges, including the peel. The. heat removes the bitterness ,really it does!
Heat the oven to 170°C fan / 190°C conventional. Grease and /or line a cake tin.
Beat the eggs and sugar until well combined and slightly aerated.
Beat in the 60 ml EVOO and vanilla / orange extract, if using.
Stir in the orange purée.
Fold in the ground almonds, baking powder, bicarbonate and salt.
Pour into the tin and spread evenly.
Bake for 40–50 minutes. A skewer should come out with moist crumbs rather than wet batter.
Leave it to cool completely before cutting — the texture firms as it cools.
Observations:
The cake makes 12 even slices when set out in my 24cm square baking pan. These come in at around 220 kcal per slice. in fact the high level nutritional pitch is:-
Calories per slice: approximately 220 kcal
Protein: approximately 5 g
Carbohydrates: approximately 17 g
Fat: approximately 15 g
Of which saturated 2 g
Fibre: approximately 2.5 g
This is a lot lower than 325 kcal a slice, 25g carbohydrate and saturated fat of 15 g. In fact ,the cake is a particularly good alternative from a cardiovascular perspective. Although almonds and olive oil are calorie-dense, their predominantly unsaturated fats are generally preferable to the saturated fats in butter.if. You are looking for cholesterol-reduction, the most significant advantage is the lower saturated fat content, rather than simply the reduction in calories.
In terms of storage, the cake will last in a fridge really well for about a week wrapped in baking parchment and a slice with a cup of tea is quite satisfactory.
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