Flourless orange cake for Boris

Our credit officer, Boris, celebrated his birthday on Sunday. I asked Boris whether he preferred his cake on the Friday before or the Monday after the big day. Luckily for me, he nominated the Monday after, which gave me some extra time to make it.

Boris is very fitness conscious, so I asked him what type of cake he would like me to make for him. After all, I wouldn't be doing him any favours if I made him a Black Forest Cake, resplendent with lashings of cream, chocolate and liqueur. Boris's preference (in lieu of the chocolate tofu and date cake that I have now made twice before and refuse to make again) was for a flourless orange cake. Brilliant! All I had to do was to find a good recipe, as the flourless cakes that I have tried in cafes tend to be dry and tasteless affairs.

Luck was on my side, as the recipe that I selected from a brief Google search, and which can be found here at Gluten Free South Africa, was really good. It is moist and definitely orange-flavoured, and bakes with a firm outer crumb and a delightful soft, golden interior. This is a lovely cake.



I iced this cake with orange glace icing (just icing sugar mixed with enough orange juice to make it comfortably spreadable over the cake), piped Boris's name on it using the red writing gel that I had left over from my conversation cupcakes, and decorated it with orange flavoured Starburst Fruitfuls. I think the overall effect was rather cute.

This is one of my favourite cakes so far, as it is moist, citrusey (is this a word??) and light. It also eliminated my prejudice against flourless cakes, as it proved that they do not have to taste like sawdust.

Happy birthday Boris!