Tender, luscious, gluten free Almond Cake

Aside from Passover recipes which don’t use regular flour (and I don’t care for matzo meal in recipes, it tastes like a combo of sawdust and cardboard to me) I don’t often prepare gluten free items except when I know my nieces and nephew are going to be dining with me who are either gluten intolerant or celiac sufferers.  I consider this a stretch for my culinary efforts and have searched my sites to figure out how to use ingredients successfully to prepare yummy gluten free desserts.  This cannot substitute for flour since almond flour is prohibitively expensive in Israel, but on occasion I will make them.  I’ve also got an almond meal chocolate chip mandelbread recipe that is a big hit, but that’s for another time

This recipe which I fiddled about with both during Passover and after (had to use up that almond flour!) made me really happy since I feel that my nieces and nephew can eat this and say, YES! real cake! and that’s what it’s all about, embracing family and friends ❤.  Beyond that, it is a luscious, cake with an incredible mouthfeel and I found myself fending off wheat eaters to preserve it! (Myself included 🤣)

Luscious Gluten Free Almond Cake

If you want this to come out properly, you need to use the blanched almond flour, a light colored almost powdery flour, not the almond meal which is ground with the skin (not shell) of the almond resulting in a darker speckled meal-like consistency.  There is a big difference between the two and in this recipe, it matters.

Luscious Gluten Free Almond Cake

This recipe is enough for 2 long loaf pans.  I will usually make 2 and pop one into the freezer (freezes beautifully) wrapped tightly in plastic wrap if it doesn’t get gobbled up.

6 cups almond flour (not meal)

2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

6 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla sugar

1 cup white sugar

2/3 cup vegetable oil (I use canola, on Passover, usually walnut oil which imparts a delicate added flavor)

Grated rind of half a lemon

Grated rind of half an orange

1/4-1/3 cup orange juice (preferably freshly squeezed, or in a pinch, a tablespoon of frozen concentrate and water to equal a 1/4 – 1/3 cup)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and oil spray 2 long loaf pans (I use the disposable kind) and line with parchment paper .  In a big bowl, mix together the dry ingredients (not including the sugars), almond flour, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.  In a mixer, beat the eggs till light and fluffy (they turn a nice pale yellow) while slowly adding the sugars. They will rise high in the mixer, this is normal.  Slowly add the oil to the egg-sugar mixture, whipping together till well combined.  Add half the dry ingredients then half the juice then the dry again and rest of the juice. Beat till combined.  If the mixture seems too thick, add the extra juice (till 1/3 cup, see above).

Pour carefully into the two prepared loaf pans and put in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes.  Check after 25 minutes especially since almond flour seems to bake more quickly and you surely don’t want it to burn!  Check with toothpick and a few crumbs should cling to it.  You want it to remain moist so don’t overbake it.  It’s a dangerous cake to make since it’s melt on your tongue delish and you may find yourself reaching for the almond flour more often than you thought!