This light and fluffy gluten-free Tunisian orange cake is soaked in citrus syrup for a fragrant, incredibly delicious bake perfect with a cup of tea.
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Day’s off spent baking
I had a proper day off yesterday.
I woke early with no imminent deadlines to worry about, it wasn’t raining, and I could fill my day with what I pleased.
It was bliss!
I spent most of the day pottering about in the kitchen. The sun was supposed to be shining brightly later on that day so I made some homemade lemonade for the kids, freezing some of it into fruit-packed ice lollies. This inspired me to bake something with lemon.
Polenta or bread crumbs?
I prepared a Tunisian orange cake recipe given to me by the lovely Bo Simmons. Bo used to own The Olive Tree cafe in the Toll Clock Shopping Centre in Lerwick, Shetland. This cake is still served in that cafe (update November 2023: it’s still served there!).
The recipe calls for 50 grams of either bread crumbs or polenta, and for the last 15 years I have always made this cake with polenta, the coarse variety, with much success. It gives a nice yellow hue and pleasant texture to the cake.
This time, however, I used up three heel ends (one seedy brown, two white) of gluten-free bread I’d taste-tested a few months ago. See how I always keep everything? Who else keeps three bread heels in their freezer in case they might be useful in the future?
I whizzed the crusts into breadcrumbs in my new handheld food processor. This made short work of the frozen ends to make a nice, fine breadcrumb, ideal for cake baking!
The original recipe also calls for caster sugar. I substituted this with golden caster sugar as I was trying to empty the packets in my cupboard. I was also trying to use up eggs, as I was expecting another dozen gorgeous Shetland free-range eggs to arrive in my veg box that afternoon. This recipe uses four – ideal for a clear-out!
The cake turned out beautifully!
I will now make this Tunisian orange cake with breadcrumbs instead of polenta. It’s a gorgeous cake and remarkably light for being gluten-free. Soaking it in citrus syrup takes it to a whole new exotic level.
Recipe Difficulty Levels
Easy
Requires basic cooking skills and ingredients you most likely already have in your kitchen.
Moderate
Requires more experience, preparation and/or cooking time. You may have to source special ingredients.
Challenging
Recipes requiring more advanced skills and experience and maybe some special equipment.
Tunisian Orange Cake Recipe
Ingredients
For the cake
- 50 grams gluten free bread crumbs or polenta
- 200 grams golden caster sugar
- 100 grams ground almonds
- 1.5 tsp baking powder
- 200 ml sunflower oil
- 4 large free-range eggs
- 1 lemon zested
- 1 orange zested
For the syrup
- 1 lemon juice only
- 1 orange juice only
- 75 grams caster sugar
- 2 whole cloves
- 1 cinnamon stick
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Equipment
Instructions
- Lightly grease an 8 inch round cake tin and line the bottom with baking paper. Don't preheat the oven!
- Combine 50 grams gluten free bread crumbs, 200 grams golden caster sugar, 100 grams ground almonds and 1.5 tsp baking powder in a medium-sized bowl.
- Whisk 200 ml sunflower oil and 4 large free-range eggs until light and fluffy, and add them to the dry ingredients.
- Add the zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange and combine well.
- Spoon into the prepared tin and place into a cold oven.
- Set the temperature for 180 C/ 160 C fan and bake for 45-50 minutes.
- Meanwhile, prepare the citrus syrup.
- Put the juice of 1 lemon and 1 orange into a small saucepan along with the 75 grams caster sugar, 2 whole cloves and 1 cinnamon stick. Bring slowly to a rolling boil.
- Simmer for two minutes and then set the pan aside to cool.
- Allow the cake to cool for five minutes after removing it from the oven and pour over the syrup. Leave to cool completely.
- This cake is delicious with yogurt or creme fraiche as a dessert.
4-Ingredient Hazelnut Cookies
Lovely moist cake, but increase the cooking time a little!
Made this cake this morning. After 50 minutes a cocktail stick came out clean but the cake was very soft on top. In the end the cake was cooked for 1 hour and 15 minutes but was still very soft on top. After 5 minutes I removed the cake from the tin, it was still hot, the greaseproof paper stuck to the cake which started to fall apart. The middle looked undercooked and was very oily so it went in the bin. I followed the recipe exactly and do not not why it turned out like it did. Any advice would be appreciated.
I’m sorry to hear you didn’t have success with your first attempt with this cake. I make this cake at least once a week for my Aald Harbour Hoose guests and it turns out perfectly every time, so I’m not sure where it went wrong for you. I use polenta (coarse ground cornmeal) in mine and bake it for 55 minutes in this particular oven. Since it’s gluten free you don’t get the same hard crust as you do with a flour-based cake, rather, it sort of puffs up in a thin layer. While it’s just hot out of the oven I pour over the spice infused orange syrup and I leave it to cool completely in the tin. After that it’s super easy to slice and serve with a spoonful of cardamom-spiced yoghurt or creme fraiche.
Certainly one to serve to your guests with some creme fraiche if you want to impress.
This is a great idea, thank you! I will add this gluten free option to the menu!
Hi polenta is a dish not an ingredient. Do you mean cornmeal? Thanks
I just had to double check that the fine polenta I bought the other day to make this recipe with does indeed say polenta on the packet! Perhaps its a UK name? Yes, it’s fine cornmeal. Happy baking!
Cornmeal is the common US name I believe, many other countries (including Oz) call it Polenta (despite what Cat says)
Can this cake be frozen?
I’ve never tried freezing it before, so I can’t tell you from experience. I’m moving house just now, and when I’ve moved I’ll make one and try freezing it to see what happens. Watch this space! 🙂
This is an alternative to the original Tunisian cake recipe. However, using Polenta instead of breadcrumbs makes it Gluten-free. I’ll stick with Polenta (also use olive oil) for health and taste reasons.
Yes I also use olive oil and I adjusted the sugar and oil into half and the cake still turned out great!!!
It’s our fav and super easy to make !!!
What a gorgeous cake! A perfect showcase for the lovely citrus flavour.
A great recipe and the texture will be fantastic.
what a mouth watering cake!!!
This looks wonderful!
Can you tell me if ground almonds is the same as almond flour or almond meal? Could all of these be used in this recipe? Thank you
Ground almonds tend to be a bit more coarse than almond flour or almond meal, but it would be well worth experimenting! I don’t see why not. 🙂
Cake I can eat without making substitutions and it sounds and looks fantastic! Will certainly have to give this one a go. Thank you.
ooh I do love a good orange cake – I add cardamom to mine. This one sounds delicious with cinnamon and cloves. Perfect!
definitely on the list to make
This looks absolutely amazing and delicious. I have pinned it for later to try out. Popping over from #recipeoftheweek
I love cakes with orange in. You get such a lovely tang to them and they are so moist. The spices must added another dimension to the flavour.
I’m always looking for new gluten-free recipes for my cousin – this looks delicious! #RecipeoftheWeek
Oh wow this looks like such a deliciously moist cake, I love citrus cakes so would love this x #recipeoftheweek
Looks absoluty delicious…..
A wonderful cake. I want to try
That looks gorgeous. I have never used polenta but I must try
Fabulous cake, I can just imagine it’s lovely citrus rich dense flavour:-)
What a stunning-looking cake! Bet that tastes absolutely delicious. Great recipe!
What a lovely light cake, and it sounds like it is full of flavour too. I love that you could use polenta as well.
what a divine texture to that cake and so incredibly moist too… I adore cakes like this and in fact have something similar waiting to be posted on the blog… it’s those oranges they call to me!
What I would not give to have a slice of this for breakfast – esp as I have the Zyliss easy pull too so can try and whip up my own breadcrumbs pretty quickly.
This looks like a really moist and citrusy cake and it’s gluten free as well! Please send a slice over. Thanks for entering AlphaBakes- completely acceptable.
What a wonderfully sticky-looking cake. Love that it is GF too. It would be perfect at Christmas me thinks!!!
I have never been a fan of polenta but this cake might just change my mind. It looks so good!
You’ve made me SO hungry right now, I could happily eat that! Please send me a piece 😉 x