My friend Jill admirably follows a no sugar diet, so I made this cake for her birthday. The cake has no refined sugar, but has a sweetness from the oranges, and is also gluten free and dairy free. The cake in the photo was made by doubling the recipe and cooked in a 30 cm tin.

The recipe is taken from the “nutrition by Gina Rose web site” – http://nutritionbyginarose.com/

Ingredients for cake

• 2 large oranges
• 125 ml rice malt syrup
• 5 eggs at room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla paste
• 2 cups almond meal
• 1 tsp gluten free baking powder

1. Place the oranges in a saucepan and use enough water to just cover them. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 2 hours. (Turn them occasionally and top up the water if it gets too low). Once the oranges are cooked, drain them and allow to cool completely. Once cooled chop them roughly (skin and all!) and remove any seeds that may be present.
2. Preheat your oven to 190°C (less for a fan forced oven) and grease and line a 20cm springform cake tin.

3. Place the cooked, chopped orange segments along with the eggs, rice malt syrup and vanilla paste in a food processor and blend for a minute until well combined.
4. Add the almond meal and baking powder and blend until you have a smooth batter.
5. Pour the cake mixture into the springform tin and cook, in the middle of the oven, for approximately 50-60 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
6. Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before releasing it and allow to cool on a cake rack.
7. Cut cake into slices and serve with a dollop of cream or yoghurt.

Tips

• I used large sized eggs