Why not dive into a little bit of North African flavours with this gluten free almond and orange cake. This Tunisian Orange Cake is not only fabulous, it’s gluten free and a whole lot easier than it looks. Surprise your family or friends with this special cake sometime soon!
If you are familiar with Middle Eastern or Moroccan and North African desserts you will be well aware they are quite different to the type us North American’s are used to making. Generally much denser and quite often sticky and generally very moist. Not to mention, full of flavour and delicious! This cake, much like the Citrus and Pistachio Cake is a complete treat!
What Makes This Tunisian Orange Cake Great
- Fantastic flavour – this cake is bursting with a wonderful citrus flavour
- Gluten free – this cake doens’t use any flour which makes it naturally gluten free. Instead almond meal is used to create the cake.
- Moist texture – because of the oil, ground almonds and a syrup poured over the top, this is a super moist cake.
- Easy to make – despite the appearance of this cake, it comes together quite quickly and is easy to make.
- Keeps moist for days – because of the ingredients in this cake, it stays moister for long than most other cakes that would be make with butter and flour.
Ingredients to Make This Tunisian Orange And Almond Cake
- For the cake:
- 1 1/2 cups almond meal
- 1 1/2 Teaspoons baking powder
- 4 Eggs
- Zest of 1 orange
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 3/4 Cup caster sugar
- 1 1/2 Teaspoons cinnamon
- 3/4 Cup sunflower oil
- For the syrup:
- Juice of 1/2 orange
- Juice of 1/2 lemon
- 2 Tablespoons sugar
- For the glaze and decorating:
- 1 Cup powdered sugar
- 3-4 Tablespoons orange juice fresh
- Zest of one orange
- 1/4 Cup pistachios roughly chopped
REMEMBER, The full recipe and instructions is always found at the end of the post in the recipe card.
Instructions
- Preheat oven – Grease and flour a 7 inch spring form pan. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
- Combine dry ingredients – In a medium bowl combine the almonds, sugar, baking powder and cinnamon.
- Make the egg mixture and finish batter – In a large whisking bowl, whisk together the eggs and oil until foamy. About 2 minutes. Stir in the zest of the orange and lemon. Stir the dry ingredients into the whisked eggs.
- Bake the cake – bake in a preheated oven for about 1 hour 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
- Leave to cool – remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack to cook.
- Make the syrup – in a small saucepan set over medium heat. Add the juice and sugar bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium low and let cook and reduce for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and leave to cool.
- Make the glaze – In a small bowl, combine the powdered sugar with the orange juice and whisk until it’s smooth.
- Glaze and decorate cake – Remove the sides from the cake and transfer to a serving plate. Pour the syrup over the cooled cake. Drizzle over the glaze. Top with pistachios and orange zest. Ready to serve.
Recipe Tips and Notes
- I used a spring form pan for this recipe but you could use a tin the removable sides without the spring if that is all you have. You need to use a tin with high sides because as you can see it rises quite high. So don’t use just a regular cake tin because I think you will be disappointed.
- Can use almond flour – I used almond meal in this recipe, but almond flour will work just as well.
What Flavours go Great With This Cake
- Coffee – of course, you know it will go great with a cup of coffee.
- Vanilla Ice cream – serve ice cream on the side
- Fresh whipped cream – whipped cream is always a great choice
- Mascarpone cheese – it would be great served with whipped mascarpone cheese
- Caramel – you can even top it with Homemade Caramel Sauce.
Like what you see today? Don’t forget you can follow on Facebook for daily inspiration or over on Instagram where I sometimes do daily cooking videos for fun! I’m also on Pinterest which is a great place that you can save and share your favourite recipes. As well, if you haven’t yet, Subscribe to the newsletter. You’ll be notified whenever there’s a new recipe! You can do that at the top of the page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Almond meal is made from raw almonds and almond flour is made from peeled almonds. Almond meal is a little coarser in texture.
Although pistachios were only used to top this cake, yes you can add them to the batter as well. If doing so, make sure to roughly chop them. As well, toss them in a little almond flour or almond meal before adding them to the batter. This will help prevent them from sinking to the bottom.
Tunisian Orange Cake
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 1 1/2 Cups ground almonds
- 1 1/2 Teaspoons baking powder
- 4 Eggs
- Zest of 1 orange
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 3/4 Cup caster sugar
- 1 1/2 Teaspoons cinnamon
- 3/4 Cup sunflower oil
For the syrup:
- Juice of 1/2 orange
- Juice of 1/2 lemon
- 2 Tablespoons sugar
For the glaze and decorating:
- 1 Cup powdered sugar
- 3-4 Tablespoons orange juice fresh
- Zest of one orange
- 1/4 Cup pistachios roughly chopped
Instructions
- Grease and flour a 7 inch spring form pan. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
- In a medium bowl combine the almonds, sugar, baking powder and cinnamon.
- In a large whisking bowl, whisk together the eggs and oil until foamy. About 2 minutes. Stir in the zest of the orange and lemon. Stir the dry ingredients into the whisked eggs.
- Bake in a preheated oven for about 1 hour 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
- Remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack to cook.
- Make the syrup in a small saucepan set over medium heat. Add the juice and sugar bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium low and let cook and reduce for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and leave to cool.
- In a small bowl, combine the powdered sugar with the orange juice and whisk until it’s smooth.
- Remove the sides from the cake and transfer to a serving plate. Pour the syrup over the cooled cake. Drizzle over the glaze. Top with pistachios and orange zest. Ready to serve.
*A note on times provided: appliances vary, any prep and/or cook times provided are estimates only.
Thanks For Stopping By & Hope To See You Soon!
So there isn’t any flour used?
Correct Sam, there is no flour. The ground almonds and eggs work as a binder for a cake. It holds together beautifully and is very moist and flavourful.
Oh wow. I’m definitely going to try this. Thanks for clarification.
Hi there 🌸 Could i clarify if it’s an almond flour or just finely ground almonds please? Thank you so much
Hi Tania, you can use either almond flour or ground almonds. I made both versions, I hope this helps. I’dd add it in the notes section of the recipe card. Thank you!
Can this be made ahead?
Hi Vanya, Yes you can easily make it the day before serving. No problem at all!
Hello Julia, this looks fabulous. My smallest spring form pan is 8 in. I am fine with conversion for ingredients, although given that it is a denser cake, do you think this will be ok? I am sure it will be but I have not done this style of cake before and it stands so well in the photos and I don’t want lose that. Just beautiful ❤️ Thank you!
Yes Jackie, a larger pan is just fine. Just keep and eye on the baking time, as it will bake a bit quicker. As well, the cake won’t be as high. But it should work just fine. I hope this helps.
Hi Julia,
I made the cake and it tasted good. However, it is very oily.
Was your cake oily too?
Hi Jane, No the cake shouldn’t be oily at all. It does however have a slightly wetter texture than many cakes. It has a lot of eggs, oil and the syrup. What kind of oil did you use?
How did you get your cake so tall? I’ve looked at many recipes for this cake ( a lot of them also use gluten free bread crumbs as well as almond flour) and none of them look anywhere near as tall as yours and they seem to call for the 7′ pan as well. Your cake also looks darker overall inside and out. So is the picture shown actually this exact recipe?
I promise you the picture shown is the actual cake I baked. I have never ever shown images on my site that are not the actual recipe I made. All recipes are made and photographed by me. The only thing I would say about lighting in food photography, is that it honestly doesn’t always accurately display the colours 100% correctly. But I’ve baked this cake many times and it comes out more or less just like the one pictured. I’ve had many readers say it’s not been as tall for them. While others have achieved the same look. I really hope this helps Tina.
Instead of cake, could I make muffins from this recipe? Just looks and sounds delicious!
Hello, I have not made muffins with this recipe. I feel it will work, but you will need to decrease the baking time. I hope this helps!
5Follow up question, would it work to double the recipe and then bake it in a 9″ or 10″ springform pan? For how long do you think?
Yes, you could double the recipe. Baking time would vary but it shouldn’t be too much longer. I would probably add 10 minutes to the baking time and then check it for doneness at that time. I hope this helps!
delicious cake, that we’ve enjoyed even more the day after. The syrup was better settled in the cake and the taste was therefore more balanced.
Thank you for the recipe
Hi Caroline, Thank you for the kind feedback. Really happy you enjoyed the cake!
Hi!
Can I make this 2 days ahead. Do I refrigerate?
Thank you!
Hi Julia!
Can I make this 2 days ahead. And if so do I add the syrup and glaze than or before serving?
Do I refrigerate?
Thank you!
Hi Diana, Yes, you can make this a couple of days before. Bake the cake and let it cool until it’s completely cooled down. Store it in an airtight container or wrap it in plastic wrap. I would keep it at room temperature, so no need to refrigerate it. Then glaze it the day you are serving it. Hope this helps.
Hi. Is there a substitute for the sunflower oil? I have avocado, olive or canola oil. No dietary restrictions. Thank you!
Yes, canola oil will work no problem at all.
Can I use olive oil???
H Karen,
I have not tested this cake with olive oil, sorry. I’m not sure the results would be the same. Hope this helps, although late as this comment wasn’t shown. Sorry.
I made this for a function and it was the star of the lunch. Easy to make and delicious. My go to GF cake from now on.
That’s really great to hear Sofia! Thank you so much for the kind feedback!
Questions: I plan on using Avocado oil (neutral) have 3,4 6, 8 inch springform pans. Thinking 6 inch will give me the nice height of yours??? Will add a little orange flower to both cake and frosting.