Almond Citrus Cake

For another take on using oranges in our baking I decided to mix two of my favourite food together - almonds and oranges. I wanted to use up some oranges but also to bake using less flour and more of other, different ingredients.

Almonds are lovely because they grind down into a floury powder, yet retain that deep taste that goes throughout a dish. And they pair up well with citrus - especially orange. I also like the texture of cake, cookies or other foods like nut loaf when made with almonds.

Cakes are easy to make with nearly any combination of ingredients and are just as easy to freeze for those days when something a little sweet would be nice with your dandelion coffee. 

This recipe is really straight forward and easy to follow - I had my children working with me on this one too - we usually bake something on Fridays for our home school project....

Almond Citrus Cake

2 cups ground almonds

1 cup whole grain spelt flour (or white spelt)

1 large organic orange

3 eggs (I use duck eggs)

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon Apple pie spice

1/4 teaspoon cardamom

pinch salt

7 to 8 tablespoons orange water

Place the orange in a saucepan cover it with water and bring it to a gentle boil for about 1 hour. It should cook gently, otherwise it will be tough. Once boiled, take off the heat and cool. Then cut it open and remove the seeds. The orange then needs to be blended into a pulp together with one or two tablespoon of the water it was boiled in.

Turn on the oven to 180C and prepare a baking tin - I usually use a bundt pan for cakes.

In a deep mixing bowl, place the dry ingredients and sift them together (flour, almond, baking powder, baking soda, spices, salt). Break the eggs in a small bowl and whisk together with the maple syrup. Next, add the wet ingredients (including the orange pulp) to the dry almond mixture and start to mix together - you will need to add the orange water here - add enough to ensure it is wet but not sloppy. Usually around 7 or 8 tablespoons.

Spoon this batter into a prepared tin and bake for about 40 to 45 minutes. Once a toothpick comes out clean - turn off the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes then turn out onto a rack. This is lovely served with orange sections, or drizzled with maple syrup.

Enjoy!

Almond Citrus Cake

Cake and the Magic of Life...

So, right now we are in the middle of some sort of a cooking, baking, foodie craze...apparently there are more cooking shows, new cookbooks, recipe sites and blogs then ever before. And that is all great, right? It keeps us focused on eating well and using our food to get healthy....

Oh, I forgot, 99% of these shows, blogs, books and what not have nothing to do with eating well, healthy meals or removing rubbish from your diet. In fact, the latest fad to hit the airwaves is the cake and baking madness with impossible techniques, equipment and ingredients.

No one enjoys nice cake more then me, especially with a great cup of dandelion coffee. But that is just it - I would make it myself, it is sugar free, organic, whole grain, fresh, made from unprocessed everything and actually still registering on the food pyramids.

I was out and about at the weekend and could clearly see the evidence of this baking craze - with heaps of new recipe books, baking pans, measuring cups and each shelf topped off with icing sugar or some other type of poison. 

Not to mention the use of colorings, additives, tins of ready made this or that, chocolate laced, sweet and full of empty calories. So, what is this all about anyway? Yet another way to get you looking at food, thinking about food and perhaps making high calorie meals?

I don't think so. I think it's about making you think - that cake looks perfect, I can't possibly make that so I still want it and I will go out and buy it. Just like everything else out there - it comes in a box and all you have to do is fork it into your mouth.

I just finished reading a study that found people who watched cooking shows ate more calories from sugary sweets during and immediately afterwards. Whereas people who watched a nature show did not. 

Personally, I would recommend you throw out the televisions (yes, bring it to the curb) clear out your cupboards of all the rubbish and start over with the basics. Get back to talking to each other, cooking with realistic ingredients and baking a cake without sugar, caffeine, chocolate or processed anything. 

Then watch the magic that happens (p.s. it's called 'life')....

April

Borage in the garden

Pineapple Walnut Cake

Today has been rather productive for a Sunday and a fasting day! We got a few things done in the herb garden and I also had time to get in some cooking and baking. Of course this is my favourite thing to do  - so I always have time for it.

As a result of today's exploits I made a pot of cream of broccoli soup and a pineapple walnut cake. That was aside from all the work with the herbs....

Of course the cake was the most interesting part - it all started with a tin of pineapple (organic of course) that was left over in the cupboard. I don't have many tins of things here, so this one just sort of stood out all alone.

Today I pulled it out and decided something had to be done with this lonely pineapple and it whispered 'cake'. Actually this is a really easy cake to make and it sort of just fell together in a matter of minutes. 

I always start out with the basic 3 cups of flour, bread soda, salt - to this I added cinnamon, coconut and chopped walnuts. It all looked good so far and I could actually taste the final result. I guess this time I was baking for a certain taste if that makes sense!

Then, for the wet ingredients I put in some agave syrup and apple sauce as a sweetener, 3 duck eggs and oil. It was all quickly mixed together until there was no more flour visible and now I had a lovely cake batter.

For an added twist I decided to bake it in one of my clay pots. After soaking the clay pot in water for about 15 minutes it was ready to be buttered and floured on the inside. I coated it well and then spooned the cake batter inside. 

I was a little worried that I might have just wasted my time (and my tin of pineapple!) because I had no idea how the clay pot would do with the cake - 55 minutes later it came out of the oven and smelled and looks delicious. 

My taste tester, who is 5 approved, but the only description I was able to get was that it tasted like 'cake'. She is right now eating a piece of the cake after I poured some honey over top as a topping.

Can't wait until the weekend when I can eat again! 

April

Pineapple walnut cake 

Cinnamon Cake - Loved it!

A few posts ago, I mentioned how I was having a cake week - it was during my last Master Cleanse, I made a few cakes and put them in the freezer because I was in the mood for baking that week. Well, last Sunday I took out a piece of the cinnamon cake I had made and it was one of the nicest cakes I have ever tasted....

We all enjoyed it - I even kept wondering if it had improved with the freezing process (not likely) but it was so moist, tasty and light.  Well, because of all that - I wanted to recreate it and of course see if I could improve on it. 

You know, make it even better, if that was possible. 

It is a challenge to make these things when I don't use sugar, wheat flour and anything processed - we have become so accustomed to those flavours, we often feel at a loss when trying to find ingredients to use in place of this. 

And for me, it has been over 8 years since I ate sugar, wheat, cows milk, caffeine or many other of these foods - and I still have to stop and think about replacement ingredients for certain foods I want to make. Yet, I know that is also part of the process here, find the old ways some of these recipes were made or come up with new ones.

I am never one to back down from a challenge, so in wanting to improve on an already great recipe for the cinnamon cake I decided what it needed was something like a coffee cake crumble over the top. Only it would be without the sugar....

I went back to the drawing board here and made my cake with the standard fare - 2 duck eggs, 1 cup milk, 3 cups spelt flour, 1/2 cup butter, baking soda etc. But then I added in 1 cup of ground almonds, 1 cup apple butter and extra cinnamon with some of our own honey.

These ingredients were all mixed in a deep bowl to form the cake batter which I then poured into a bundt pan. For the topping, I mixed up 3/4 cup oats, butter, milk, cinnamon and maple syrup in a small bowl. It did not look like quite enough, I could have done with more, but I thought it would give me an idea of how this would taste.

I crumbled the topping mixture over top of the batter and then placed it in a hot oven for about 40 minutes or so. Once it was cool I could not wait to taste how this one turned out - I tried to stick to my original recipe (thank goddess I keep notes!) so I hoped it would be as nice as the last one.

It was better! I loved it. Tonight I made a little icing (didn't need it but what the hell!) from creamed goats cheese and maple syrup to drizzle over each slice. It was delicious - my new favorite recipe, for today anyway!! LOL

April

Cinnamon cake with crumble topping

It's Been A Cake Week

This week I have been interested in making cakes and have made three so far - cinnamon cake, a light fruit and nut cake and a banana cake. We have another celebration coming up this weekend and I wanted loads of different treats on hand.

I love making cakes, they are versatile, easy to serve with other things and everyone loves them with ice cream, fruit sauce or a goat's cheese frosting. Cakes are such an old fashioned item, have been made for centuries (or far longer) and are quite the comfort food.

They are also all about celebration - which for us it just what is needed for this coming weekend with the Autumn Equinox or Mabon. I have been looking at older recipes for this occasion with very ordinary ingredients.

Some of these recipes can be the same as traveling back in time - the final outcome has been eaten by our ancestors for as long as we have been cooking. A cake presents a special ending to a satisfying meal and when made for that occasion can lend a great finishing touch.  

For each of these I used white spelt flour for a complete change. I have found it easy to work with, not unlike wheat, however it does soak up liquids a little differently from the wholegrain spelt. I do like the colour of each cake as well, they are lighter with the other ingredients standing out more. 

This week, I wanted to use up the bananas in the house so decided to make a banana cake - but for a little difference I added apple butter in through the top of the batter just before baking it. It smells great, and I can't wait to taste it.

Banana cake with apple butter 

For the fruit cake, I put in lots of fruit and a few walnuts to make it rich and moist. It was sweetened  with apple sauce and maple syrup. Fruit cake would not normally be something I would go for, however as my tastes have changed, I wanted to try to make one.

Fruit and nut cake 

Lastly I made a cinnamon cake, this one is just an ordinary cake with the standard ingredients, but I did put in lots of nuts. It should be very spicy with the freshly ground cinnamon as well. 

For a quick frosting, I normally whip creamed goat's cheese with a little butter and maple syrup. This is absolutely delicious with a great sweetness and spreads onto the cake in the same way as any other sugar frosting. 

Well, lots more cooking to do tomorrow - my last day of this 10 day Master Cleanse for this month. Can't wait to eat some food and move onwards and upwards!

Have a lovely foodie day,

April

Banana cake with apple butter on top- it smells lovely! 

Bulk Buying, Flour and Cinnamon Cake

Today, in my wish to get a little organized for next week and indeed the coming winter season, I did a large bulk shopping trip to build up our own stores here at home. What I found were some different flours I would not usually use too often.

I now have oat flour, more gram flour, barley flour, white spelt and lentil flours. A few years ago, when I was gluten free, I did use more of these. At the time our digestive tracts were still in recovery phase, so we did not eat bread and certainly not cakes.

Now, we are well past that (a few years in fact) and I have been making lots baked goods for us to enjoy. Mostly I use organic whole grain spelt flour for nearly everything. But it is nice to branch out now and again into some different tastes.

When I came home I wanted to try out my white spelt flour in a cake recipe I have been working on and hope to make a few of these cakes in the coming weeks. Tonight I made a cinnamon cake that was supposed to have an almond crumble.

However, at the last minute I thought the almond crumble might not keep frozen, so I ended up mixing the almonds into the batter. Of course, I always start with my standard - 2 cups of flour,  baking soda and a little salt.

Next I wanted the cake to be sweet but am no longer using commercial apple concentrate, so I made some apple sauce from 2 apples with cinnamon and nutmeg mixed in. To this I added 1 cup of butter and two eggs. 

Steamy apple sauce with lots of cinnamon and nutmeg

Using my blender I ground up 1 cup of almonds fairly fine which went into the flour mixture. Then I folded in the apple sauce-butter-egg into the flour mixture. As I was stirring it, I added 1/4 cup of maple syrup and a little more flour.

Cinnamon cake batter in pan

At this point it smelled very almondy so I added more cinnamon! 

Of course, the entire house now smells like cinnamon cake, it looks divine and we are fasting until Thursday... LOL

Into the freezer it goes until next weekend. I hope to have a couple more made by then, perhaps something very different from what I normally make - with all these nice flours to try. 

Hope you have a lovely day!

April

Cinnamon cake, just out of the oven