Orange Almond Date cake – gluten free

Posted by corneliaskitchen on 04/19/2013 · 5 Comments 

Royal Orange cake

The national ‘orange’ color begins to conquer the city. Little by little The Netherlands is getting ready for the upcoming coronation.
On April 30, it’ll be that after years, even centuries, the Dutch again get a king instead of a queen as head of the fatherland. Our Prince of Orange-Nassau turns King of Orange-Nassau.

The blogs theme this month is therefor orange. No fruit is more connected to the royal family than ‘appeltjes van oranje’  (apples of orange).

I say get the party started with Royal Orange king cake.

What do you need:

cake (gluten free)
– 4 eggs.
– 100 ml maple syrup.
– 225 g almond flour.
– Pinch of salt.
– 4 g baking soda.
– 4 g of tartaric acid baking powder.
– 6 medjool dates (± 6 piece) chopped.
– Almond shavings for decoration
– 2 mixing bowls
– springform 20 cm diameter

sauce:
– Grated zest of 1 oranges.
– Juice of 2 oranges.
– 100 g palm flower sugar.

How to prepare:

Separate the eggs.

Beat egg yolks with the syrup in 8 minutes until thick, lobed, creamy substance.

Mix the almond flour with the baking powder.

Add almond mixture slowly to the egg yolk mixture. Mix on the lowest setting until smooth. Stir in the dates it.

Wash the mixers carefully so that no grease remains.

Mix the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff peaks appear and you can keep the bowl up side down without the mixture falling out.

Scoop egg white mix now gently through the almond mix.

Fill a greased baking tin with the mixture and bake in 45-50 minutes at 180 degrees browned.

Remove the cake from the oven and prick on top with a skewer holes all over.

Let the cake cool in the tin.

Meanwhile prepare the sauce.

Heat the orange juice, zest and palm sugar over low heat in a saucepan until it foams and caramelise degree.

Take once caramelized immediately pan from heat and  pour the mixture through a sieve directly over the cake. The sauce is absorbed directly into the cake through the holes made on top.

Spread the remain residue of the peel left in the sieve  together with some almond shaving on top of the cake  to create a nice and tasty decoration.

* Tip: I used palm sugar instead of regular refined sugar in de sauce. Palm sugar is made from the nectar that is extracted from inflorescences of Arenga palm. Palm sugar is not refined and still contains the most essential nutrients. As a result, palm sugar has not the aging and bad characteristics of refined sugar.
Pure palm sugar has a low glycemic index (35), especially compared to refined sugar (70) and contains many antioxidants.

Filed under cakes & biscuits, dessert · Tagged with almonds, cake, dates, dessert, eggs, orange