There are times when the forces of good culinary outcomes are all in alignment, and yesterday in the Sheinton Street kitchen was one of them. The cake worked and the loaf worked. The first, a gluten free orange spice cake, is one I make every now and then, though I keep changing the constituent parts; the second I rarely ever make. I am thus inordinately pleased with this spelt flour creation. It not only looks beautiful it also makes brilliant toast; especially delicious with homemade marmalade.
The cake started out as a Delia Smith recipe from her classic cookery book, but I’ve made so many changes, I think I can claim it as my recipe. In yesterday’s version I replaced the flour with ground almonds and polenta, the butter with coconut oil, the castor sugar with coconut sugar, and the mixed peel with a table spoonful of homemade marmalade and some chopped stem ginger.
Orange Spice Cake
You need an 8 inch/20 cm loose bottomed cake tin – greased (I usually line the base with parchment). Oven 325 F/170 C/160 C Fan assisted. Cooking time around 1 hour.
5 oz almond flour (140 gm)
5 oz polenta (140 gm)
4 oz coconut oil (110 gm)
3 oz coconut sugar (or sugar of choice) (75 gm)
ground ginger – rounded teaspoon
ground cinnamon – rounded teaspoon
ground cloves – a pinch
grated zest of large orange
2 eggs beaten
3 oz runny honey (75 gm)
1 level teaspoon bicarbonate of soda dissolved in 3 tablespoons cold water
1 heaped tablespoon of marmalade or 2 oz (50 gm) chopped mixed peel
1 piece of stem ginger finely chopped
Method
Gently melt honey and coconut oil in a pan over a low heat. Set aside.
Sift ground almond flour into large bowl with polenta. Add sugar, spices and orange zest. Stir in melted oil and honey. Add marmalade/or mixed peel/stem ginger, beaten eggs, dissolved bicarb and beat well. The resulting mix is slightly sloppy. Pour into tin and bake. It will probably take about an hour but keep an eye on it. When cooked, cool in the tin and then turn out. And eat!
Tish Farrell 
Looks scrumptious. Ems. said Oh, wow. Send me the recipe I must try it…
So I will
And the bread? I’ll have a go at that if you provide the recipe.
Hope it works out for Ems. It can be adorned with a drizzle icing and chopped stem ginger. It’s also good as a pudding sliced with cream and fresh fruit. Re bread, I’ll maybe do a post tomorrow with the recipe. A good excuse to show off my bread photos 🙂
Look forward to it. Thank you, Ms T.
On second thoughts I’ll pop the recipe here. It’s for wholemeal spelt flour.
500 gm flour/ 1 lb 2 oz
half teaspoon salt
one teaspoon dried/fresh yeast and one teaspoon of sugar/honey dissolved in 300 ml/ half pint of warm water;
one tablespoon vegetable oil.
Mix everything together. Knead well (or put in food processor with dough hook for 8-10 mins on slow). I kneaded for 5 or so mins until it felt silky.
Cover and rest for 30-40 mins (until dough is puffy);
Knock back, knead briefly and shape. (I used a 2 lb loaf tin);
Prove in warm place until dough doubles in size. The recipe says an hour. I left it a bit longer. I think the proving may be the key and shouldn’t be stinted.
Bake at 220′ C for 30-40 mins. I turned mine upside down after around 25 mins. It’s done when it sounds really hollow when you knock on its bottom.
Tx
I will try to get some spelt flour and have a crack at this.
Thank you.
My pleasure 🙂
Certainly sounds good!
Sounds and looks great
Thank you for sharing the recipe Tish. It looks delicious; I have all the ingredients, and today feels like a baking day.
Cakes around the world, eh. Bon appetit!
Yum, those both look delicious.
janet
Both look and sound delicious
Beautiful photos and the bread looks delicious.
I’m astonished how good the bread is. In the past most of the bread I’ve made was rather brick-like 🙂
Well, these loaves look perfect.
What a temptress! I’ve never knowingly tasted almond flour but it sounds lke a winning combination. Maybe when it gets cooler. This week’s excuse is it’s too hot to bake 🙂 🙂
so many Portuguese delights use ground almonds, you will have to ask next time you are in the cafe!
You can use it in brownies instead of ordinary flour. A rather squidgy result, but delicious.
You didn’t invite me round!
How mean of me!
they both look delicious and I am sure the smells of them cooking must have been wonderful:)
You’re right, baking bread smells do lift the spirits. This may account for why there’s been a national flour and yeast shortage. Everyone’s baking.
Looks tempting too
Mission accomplished then 🙂
both look delicious! 🙂 🙂
My dried yeast has come to its end date and not doing much in the way of rising any more 😦 sadly I have not seen yeast in the supermarkets (and yes I have tried more than one) since February! If only I had known to buy some then. And yes, flourless brownies (using ground almonds) are delicious.
The lack of yeast is a crisis. I’ve only got some 2-year old sachets left. Not sure if they’ll do much. Am now pondering on sour dough where you make your own rising agent. It always seemed a faff before – but needs must…
Dried yeast now on ebay and just found some here at: https://www.buywholefoodsonline.co.uk/bread-flour
ASDA had some yesterday and loads of flour including huge sacks of bread flour!
Wonderful. It’s such a good feeling when baking turns out right!
It was a good feeling. Am now instantly addicted to home-made bread. How are you? So sorry about your dog. They leave a big hole.
Home-made bread is incredibly addictive! Doing okay but with lockdown etc, as well, I am wondering if I have fallen into the big hole! 😀
I too have that ‘fallen-in-a-big-hole’ feeling.
It is a bit hard to avoid ‘the slough of despond”
Agreed.
Two very good looking bakes, Tish! Hurray!
Thank you for the orange-spice cake recipe.
I love the notion that you might be baking this over in Singapore. Enjoy!
I cannot wait to try this orange spice cake… Thanks… I wish you could send me some by mail (laughter)
I would love to be able to email you a cake, Dr. Y. What fun that would be. Maybe some kind of 3D printing combined with the inter-web 🙂 🙂
Looks lovely. Thanks for sharing! 😁
Looks tempting! I will definitely try your recipe.
The cake looks so wonderfully moist.
It definitely was 🙂