I admit, when I first thought of gluten-free desserts, my nose would automatically scrunch up and a look of disdain would cascade over my face right away.

That was a few years ago, and not only has a lot changed since then, but an array of dishes have been created with the gluten-free consumer in mind. Not everything has to take like dusty, old solid brick anymore. I wanted to share this delicious recipe with you – not only does it look delicious, it is scrumptious to eat! Bon appetit!

Flourless Orange Almond Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 whole medium size oranges If you only have big ones just use 1 1/2
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 cups of almond meal or 3 cups of whole almonds that you’ll grind up
• 1 tsp Baking Powder

Instructions:

1. Grease and flour a 9″ spring form pan-  You can do a regular 9 ” round but it is harder to get it out of the pan in pretty slices.
2. If you have almond meal- skip this step- Place 3 cups of whole almonds into the bowl of your food processor. Pulse until the almonds are a fine even texture. I actually left mine a little rougher because I like more texture in  the final cake. It’s up to you but DON”T over process or you’ll be eating almond butter sandwiches for the rest of the month! Remove the meal from the bowl and set aside.
3. Stir 1 tsp of baking powder into the meal.
4. Zest all skin off of the 2 oranges and place in a bowl.
5. Preheat oven to 340º.
6. Peel the oranges then slice or pull into the sections and place the pieces into the Food processor bowl. There will be some almond meal in there but so what, it’s all going to be mixed together in a minute. Pulse until the oranges are a nicely pureed. Pour the puree in with the zest and set aside. Try to get as much of the orange out of the bowl as you can.
7. Crack 3 eggs into the processor bowl and add the 1 cup of sugar. Turn on processor and process until the eggs and sugar are thick and pale yellow. About 45- 60 seconds.
8. Add the almond meal, the orange puree and zest into the egg mixture and process for about 10-15 seconds until combined.
9. Pour batter into prepared cake pan.
10. Bake for 50 minutes or until a toothpick can be inserted into the center and come out clean.

Serve dusted with powdered sugar.

You’re supposed to boil the oranges to soften the skins up and make it easier to cook. But, I think to myself what a wonderful world…. Whoops- I’m not supposed to be singing right now… I think to myself- if you boil the oranges and drain the water- wouldn’t all the flavorful oils from the peel go down the drain? That’s my conclusion.  So I came up with a new plan, played with the recipe, made it 3 times and here is a delicious alternative that only took 8 mins to get into the oven and that time includes grinding the almonds. Plus Bonus- I used the food processor for every step. Less to clean up! I could have made the original recipe faster but where would the fun be in that?!!!