The Back Yard Lemon Tree

I’m on an ayurvedic diet at the moment which has cut plain wheat flour and refined sugar from my diet. This means I haven’t been baking that many cakes and biscuits and when I have baked I’ve been experimenting with using different flours and sugar replacements like monkfruit. Sugar replacements like monkfruit are super expensive which limits my experimental baking quite a bit. Any recipe that calls for more than a cup of sugar is off the table and I want any cake I bake to be pretty foolproof.

For me there is no bigger baking sin than dry cake, this cake is always beautifully moist even when I’ve forgotten about it in the oven and fear I’ve over baked it. The first time I made this cake I underbaked it and I had to shove it back in the tin and bake it for another ten minutes and it was still delicious. That’s what I’m talking about when I say I need a cake to be fool proof.

Notes on the recipe

Like Sunset’s whole orange cake this cake uses a whole orange that is just blended raw in the processor and not boiled first. This gives the cake a marvellous marmelade-like flavor.

I used almond flour as opposed to almond meal. You could use almond meal instead but it would make a slightly denser cake and I think the almond flour works better with the poppy seeds.

If you are making more of a celebration cake you can ice this cake with chocolate honey glaze, which makes it completely special occasion worthy.

Orange and Poppyseed Cake with Spelt and Almond flour

Adapted from Australia’s Best Recipes

• 1 cup of spelt flour*
• 1/2 cup of almond flour
• 3 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1 cup castor sugar ( I substitute 1 cup of plain granulated monkfruit sugar)
• 185g (6.5 oz) butter melted or 185mls of vegetable oil (I use Macadamia oil)
• 3 eggs
• 1 whole orange ( thick ends cut off, de-seeded and chopped roughly)
• 2 tablespoons poppyseeds

1. Preheat oven to 170C (350F)
2. Grease and line an 18cm (7 inch) cake tin or large loaf pan. I used a well greased 20cm (8 inch) bundt tin
3. Place spelt, almond flour and baking powder in bowl and whisk together.
4. Puree orange in a food processor, until blended but not completely smooth.
5. Add eggs and melted butter or vegetable oil, process until well combined.
6. Add flour and poppy seed process until just combined.
7. Pour cake batter into greased cake tin. Bake for 45 minutes or until cake skewer tests clear.
8. Cool in tin for ten minutes until turning out onto a rack to cool.

*Spelt and almond flours can be substituted with 1 1/2 cups of plain self raising flour and the baking powder cut. Spelt flour is not gluten free, if you want to make this cake gluten free replace the spelt with gluten free flour.

Honey Chocolate Glaze (optional)

• 100g (3.5 oz) dark chocolate
• 1 tablespoon of honey
• 40g (1.5 oz) of butter

1. When cake is completely cool place on a rack over a tray.
2. Place chocolate, honey and butter in a heat proof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. (Be careful the water does not touch the bottom of the bowl)
3. Stir chocolate until butter is melted. Remove bowl from heat and beat chocolate until smooth.
4. Pour glaze over cake and spread until it drizzles down the side evenly coats cake.