Introduction
Creating sweets for the restaurant is a delicious challenge. We have the same goal for the sweet side of things as we do for the savory: to make it fun; festive and delicious while still making you feel good. But with desserts; it takes some serious effort to hit the bullseye. We think we did just that with this one (and so do the breakfast fiends of Extra Crispy; who deemed it 2017's BREAKFAST OF THE YEAR!).This cake is one of our all-day-every-day standards; intensely citrusy from a triple orange whammy (juice; zest; natural oil); with a rich nuttiness from almond flour and sweetness from a touch of honey; it's a beautiful and wholesome treat. (Bonus for those with allergies/intolerances: it's gluten- and dairy-free!) It's on the menu as 'Cake for Breakfast!' during the day -- wake & cake; people! -- and as 'orange almond honey cake' at night; we sell slices all day long in the market; too. For the table; we load it up with two seasonal fruit compotes; unsweetened whipped Strauss cream; and a dehydrated orange slice.
Ingredients
- 6 cups almond flour (or almond meal)
- ½ cup shredded coconut
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ cup olive oil
- 1 cup honey
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
- Seeds from 2 vanilla bean pods
- Zest of 3 oranges
- 1 dram (.125 fluid ounces) LorAnn Oils Orange Oil*
- 1 1/3 cups fresh-squeezed orange juice
- 5 eggs
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 325°F and line two springform pans with vegetable oil-greased parchment paper. Grease the sides of the pan well with oil; too. Flour the bottom and side of the pan by scattering gluten-free flour around; then tapping until the whole thing is lightly coated in flour (it should be sticking to the oil). In a large bowl; mix the almond flour; coconut; baking powder; and baking soda. In a small saucepan on low heat; gently warm the olive oil and honey together until the honey is fully liquefied. Add the salt and vanilla powder; stir until the salt is dissolved and the vanilla is evenly distributed. Remove the mixture from the heat; add the orange zest; juice and oil and stir well. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients; gently fold until fully combined.In a small bowl; whisk the eggs well; and then add the eggs to the rest of the cake mixture. Pour the batter evenly into each pan and bake -- we bake for 70 minutes when using a 10-inch pan and 60 minutes when using a 9-inch pan; you want to bake until a cake tester comes out clean. The cake browns quickly; so; halfway through the baking process; cover the pans with foil if need be and continue to bake. Remove from the oven and let cool completely before removing from pans. This cake is super moist and will break apart if you try to remove it too early!*If you don't have/don't want to bother with the orange oil; double the quantity of orange zest