Orange and Almond Cake with Chocolate Orange Ganache

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With a soft, moist and tender, orange flavoured crumb and a luxuriously creamy chocolate orange ganache, this fabulous cake is wonderfully simple to make. The only tricky bit is remembering to cook the oranges for 1½ hours before you make the cake. Replacing the flour with ground almonds and adding 2 complete oranges, guarantees a moist and flavourful cake whilst also ensuring it is naturally gluten free.

If you love cake and you love orange flavoured chocolate, this recipe should definitely be on your ‘must try’ list. Serve a slice with a cup of tea or add a dollop of crème fraîche and serve for dessert. Either way, it is utterly addictive and, if you can bear not to gobble it all up straight away, it keeps rather well covered at room temperature for 3 days, or in the fridge for 5 days. If storing it in the fridge, remember to allow time for it to come to room temperature before serving.

Where is this recipe from?

This recipe is very slightly adapted from Nigella’s Clementine Cake. I have simply replaced the clementines with oranges and reduced the sugar slightly. If you are not a chocolate fan, simply omit the topping, which in fact, is how Nigella serves it.

How to make Orange and Almond Cake with Chocolate Orange Ganache

Collect all the ingredients together:

Orange and almond cake –

• 400g oranges (approx. 2 – 3)
• 6 eggs
• 200g caster sugar
• 250g ground almonds
• 6g/1¼ teaspoons baking powder (gluten free, if necessary)
• ¼ teaspoon fine salt

Chocolate orange ganache –

• 150g orange flavoured chocolate (I use terry’s Chocolate Orange)
• 75g double/heavy cream
• pinch of fine salt
• Chopped chocolate orange to decorate (I used chopped chocolate orange eggs.)

How to make this gorgeous cake:

Make the cake –

1. Cover the oranges with cold water in a saucepan, bring to a simmer, cover and cook gently for 1½ hours.
2. Drain, and set aside until cool enough to handle. When cool, cut the oranges into quarters and remove any pips.
3. Tip the oranges (skin, pith, juice etc) into a food processor and blitz until pureed.
4. Add the remaining ingredients and blitz again until thoroughly mixed. You may need to stop the motor and use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl and blitz again.
5. Tip into the prepared cake tin, level the surface and cook in a preheated oven for 35 – 40 minutes or until lightly golden, coming away from the sides of the tin slightly and cooked in the centre.
6. Remove from the oven, leave in the tin for 10 minutes, remove the tin and leave to finish cooling on a wire rack.

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Finish with the ganache –

1. Finely chop or grate the chocolate. Alternatively, blitz it in a food processor. Tip the chocolate into a heatproof bowl and add the salt.
2. Heat the cream until it is steaming and small bubbles form on the surface. Do not let it boil. Pour over the chocolate, stir to roughly mix and leave to sit for a couple of minutes to let the heat melt the chocolate. Beat until smooth. Taste and adjust salt, if necessary.
3. Pour over the top of the cooled cake and decorate with chopped chocolate.

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Made this recipe?

If you make this recipe, do please tag me on instagram @daffodil_kitchen. You could also leave a comment in the box directly below the recipe.