So, I have been really in to trying out this baking in a cast iron dutch oven thing lately.  It has been a long time since I felt completely able to bake delicious desserts, and even though I am limited to what I can do with my equipment, the future is bright.  It was my coworker’s birthday on Monday, and I wanted to try and see if I could bake a cake based on her flavor request – orange cake with cream cheese frosting.  Here is what I came up with….

An amazingly moist, dense, fresh orange almond cake with mascarpone whipped cream frosting.

Please remember, that I cooked this cake on a stove top, without an oven.  If you bake it in an oven, I have no idea how it will turn out. 🙂

Orange Almond Cake

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup (168g) sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup cooked oranges*
• 1/2 cup (125g or 1/2 individual portion) plain yogurt
• 1 1/2 cups  (142g) ground almond meal
• 1/2 cup (75g) rice flour
• 1 tsp (5ml) vanilla
• 1/4 tsp (1.25ml) baking powder
• 1/4 tsp (1.25ml) xanthan gum
• butter to grease pan

*Directions for oranges:

1. Thoroughly wash 3 oranges.
2. Coarsely chop them, with the skin on.  Remove the seeds, and place them into a pot.
3. Cover them with water, and bring to a boil.  BOIL for 15 minutes.
4. DRAIN the water out, then cover the oranges again with cold water. BOIL again for another 15 minutes.
5. Drain the water a final time, then rinse the cooked oranges with cold water.
6. Puree the cooked oranges in a food processor, or with a blender until smooth.
7. This amount of oranges will make 2 cakes, in case you want to make a layer cake 🙂

Directions for cake:

1. Whisk together the eggs and sugar in a large bowl.
2. Add 3/4 cups cooked oranges, yogurt, almond flour, rice flour, vanilla, baking powder, and xanthan gum to the egg mixture and mix well.
3. Butter the cast iron skillet, and add the cake batter, and put the lid on.
4. Cook on low heat (a bigger burner) for 30 minutes, or until a knife pulls out clean when poked into the cake. I rotated the cast iron skillet a quarter turn every 5 to 7 minutes just to make sure the bottom was cooking evenly.
5. Remove cake from pan, and cool completely.  Frost when cooled.

To make the frosting:

This is enough frosting to make a layer cake, or 2 individual cakes (like I did).

• 8oz (250 ml) mascarpone cheese
• 2 tsp (10 ml) vanilla
• 1/4 cup or 62g sugar (or you can use a 2-3 large spoonfuls of honey)
• 1 cup (250 ml) heavy whipping cream

1. Whisk the first three ingredients (cheese, vanilla, sugar) in a large bowl until blended.
2. Beat the whipping cream in a mixer until stiff peaks form.
3. Fold the whipped cream into the mascarpone mixture.

I think that with the base ingredients of this cake I will be able to perfect other cake recipes. I want to show that even if you don’t have an oven, you can still make a delicious cake!! Stay tuned for more taste-tastic inspiration.