OMG I have finally found a cake that has no butter & no flour but lots of fluffy chocolatey deliciousness! I was very pleased to find a torta recipe in the Moro cookbook which surprisingly didn't use any butter. It was their Spanish Almond and Orange Torta. I made it and it turned out to be a crowd pleaser. The torta was basically eggs and ground almonds with a separate orange syrup to pour into the cake for moisture, which I thought was a really nice touch.
So I tweaked the recipe and added cocoa because orange and chocolate make for good bedfellows. All the fluffiness comes from the egg whites and that means that you do need an electric whisk to beat the egg whites or else it's quite tiring with just a hand whisk! This is a gluten free dessert for your Coeliac Friends or those on a low carb diet. This is my guilt free chocolate cake treat and it doesn't last long if within my reach!
Chocolate, Orange and Almond Torta
Ingredients:
225g of Ground Almonds
250g of Caster Sugar
25g Good Quality Cocoa Powder
6 large eggs separated
2 oranges zested
Syrup:
4 oranges segmented and juiced
Caster Sugar to taste [add gradually and however much you like to get the sweetness you want - the amount will vary depending on how much juice you get out of the oranges and how sweet they are naturally]
1 whole cinnamon stick
Serve with Vanilla Ice cream and mint or the segments of orange and the syrup... or both!
Electric whisk
Spring form tin
Grater
Sieve
Pre heated oven
Method:
1. Measure everything out, sifting the ground almonds and cocoa powder into a mixing bowl. Grate the orange zest.
2. Separate the eggs - easier to do when they are cold but better to cook when they have come to room temperature. Make sure the bowl in which the whites go into is washed, cleaned and dried really well so there is no grease in the bowl. This helps the egg whites to stiffen quickly when beaten. Otherwise it takes ages!
3. Grease, flour and line a spring form tin with baking paper. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.
4. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until fluffy - it will be quite a stiff mix.
5. Whisk the egg whites until stiff.
6. Mix the ground almonds and the cocoa with the yolk and sugar mix along with the orange zest.
7. Then mix in a third of the whites and fold in gently with a metal spoon.
8. Add the rest of the whites in slowly and fold in gently [it's quite tiring on the wrists as the mix is very stiff at first but the gradual addition of the egg whites loosen it up].
9. Scrape the mixture into the prepared tin and place the tin into the oven on the middle shelf turning the heat down to 180 degrees and bake for 55-60 min.
10. Make the orange syrup while the cake bakes. Segment the oranges and save the juice. Squeeze out the juice out of the pulp and place into a small pan with a stick of cinnamon and about half a cup of caster sugar [or add a few table spoons gradually to taste] and simmer on a low heat to thicken. Pour into a serving jug and set aside to cool.
11. Check the cake at 55 min - and it's ready if the top feels set. Take it out to cool then release the tin turn/flip over and take the base off. Then flip back onto a serving plate.
12. Poke some holes into the cake with a wooden skewer or a chopstick and then carefully dribble some syrup into the holes. Serve the rest of the syrup on the side. You can also serve the cake with ice cream and the orange segments!
Guess what I'm having with my nice cup of Yorkshire Tea right now? Mmmmm.....chocolatey goodness.
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