Gluten Free Chocolate Orange Cake

This is my first cake with fondant decorations. I kept the decorations simple and I quite liked the end result of them, however I’m not sold on the look of using fondant on ganache (perhaps it was just the way I did it) This cake was a little rushed so the ganache isn’t as smooth as I would have liked but the birthday girl was very happy with the end result so I guess that’s what counts.

Now let’s talk about the actual cake….. The lady I made the cake for was a celiac so I wanted to come up with a truly delicious gluten free cake. The end result was the sexiest cake I have ever made! The cake was two tiers with two layers in each tier. The bottom layer was a gluten free brownie and the top layer was an orange and almond yoghurt cake. I just love what orange offers chocolate, the fresh bite of the zest cuts through the rich decadence of the chocolate and leaves your palate begging for more.

 Being gluten free the cake is unusually moist. I wasn’t sure how this would be received but people were having moments similar to the café seen in “when Harry met Sally” - So I am going to label this recipe a success.

These recipes are for the 2 tiers so halve them for a single cake

Brownie Layer 

Ingredients:

5 cups almond meal

500g butter

2 cups caster sugar

12 eggs

1 cup cocoa

600g chocolate

½ cup water

Method:

Over a water bath melt the butter, sugar, chocolate, cocoa water and egg yolks

Allow the chocolate mix to cool while you beat the egg whites into they are nice and stiff

Pour the chocolate mix over the almond meal and mix together until all ingredients are wet and chocolaty

Add your egg whites ¼ at a time into the mix and fold them through

Pour the mix into greased and lined tins. Put your tins filled with brownie mix into a larger baking dish and pour boiling water into the outside dish until it comes about half way up the tin with the brownie in it. Bake @ 150 degrees for around one and a half hours or until a skewer comes out clean

Orange and almond yoghurt cake

Ingredients:

2 cups yoghurt

2/3 cup olive oil

2 cups sugar

Zest of 4 oranges

Juice of 1 orange (should be around half a cup)

4 eggs (at room temperature)

3 ½ cups almond meal

2 heaped tablespoons of cornflour

1 heaped tsp of baking powder

Method:

Whisk yoghurt, oil, sugar, zest and juice until all ingredients are smooth and there is not grainy feel to the mix.

Add the eggs one at a time. Don’t be tempted to add them all together and do not use eggs straight from the fridge. There is a high risk of curdling

Add the dry ingredients to your wet mix and stir until all mixed together

Pour the mix into greased and lined tins. Put your tins filled with cake mix into a larger baking dish and pour boiling water into the outside dish until it comes about half way up the tin with the orange cake in it. Bake @ 150 degrees for around one and a half hours or until a skewer comes out clean

The cooking time on these cakes will vary from oven to oven. Just make sure the centre of the cake is cooked. Don’t put your oven up too high, they will burn! The cakes should be moist but the skewer should not be pulling the centre of the cake away as you are taking it out.