Grain Free Orange Cake

English weather is a mystery to me. This morning as I was taking Stan on his morning walk, I had a hoodie, a jacket, a hat and in desperate need of some gloves. It's what I used to call "smoking weather" when I was much younger because you can see your breath when you speak, as if it were smoke. I still call it that.  One day you'll have hail, the next you'll have sun.

Now as I write this, the sun is shinning, the birds are singing, and I can feel the warmth of the sun hit the back of my neck. Being the Arizona girl that I am, born and raised, I miss the sun. I miss the sun and I miss the heat. Especially after my first English winter, I am particuarly looking forward to the change of seasons to a time when the sun will make a more regular appearance on a day to day basis.

Don't get me wrong - I do love experiencing actual seasons. It gets boring having the same weather day in and day out. I'm also not missing the blistering hot July summer days where you can't leave the house until after 5pm because anytime before that is just too unbearable to be without air conditioning. Until you've cooked an egg on the sidewalk, you don't know what heat is.

That all being said, I could do with a little more Vitamin D in my life. I could also always do with a little baking. My solution to everything whether it be homesickness or actual sickness (Mike's got a bit of a cold this week), is usually baking. Hey - it's good for the soul. So after consulting my overly full fruit basket, I made this grain free orange cake because why not?

Ingredients

• 2 oranges
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup maple syrup (237 grams) or honey, but maple makes it FODMAP friendly
• 3 cups almond flour (300 grams)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Method

1. Place both your oranges in a large pot with enough water to cover the oranges, and bring it to a boil. Allow the oranges to simmer for about 25 minutes.
2. While your oranges are simmering, mix together the eggs and maple syrup in a large mixing bowl. Once mixed, add in the almond flour and the baking soda.
3. Preheat your oven to 170C about 350F
4. Back to the oranges, drain the water and roughly chop the oranges. After boiling them, they should be easy to cut up. Discard the seeds and place the chopped orange bits in a food processor or high powered blender. I used my Blendtec for this and it worked beautifully. And yes, you are using the whole orange, so don't worry about peeling. Blend until smooth.
5. Once you've pureed the oranges, pour it onto the rest of your batter and mix it all together.
6. Grease a 10 inch round cake pan before adding your batter.
7. Bake for about 45-50 minutes - until a tooth pick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
8. Cool for about 10 minutes, and enjoy. 

Bonus

If you have any spare baking chocolate around, melt about 1/4 cup chocolate, a tablespoon of coconut oil, and the zest of one orange for a chocolate orange glaze that you can drizzle over the top.