I based the recipe for this orange almond cake cake off of a Greek recipe on my other blog for Ravani, a syrupy Greek lemon cake. I wanted to make it with orange, though, so I swapped that out and added some almond, too, since the Greeks use it in many desserts, thus resulting in this delicious and faintly cinnamon-y orange almond cake. There’s also no refined sugar in the cake itself, as its sweetness comes entirely from honey (another sweet Greek favorite for desserts!)
As for the icing, I wanted a little something creamy to balance out the bright citrus notes, so I whipped up this silky cream cheese icing to layer in-between the cake. Sometimes I find that full-on icing all around the cake can be a bit much, so I just put it between the layers of the cake for the perfect amount of creaminess. You can decorate the top of the cake with fresh citrus slices of any sort, really whatever you have on hand. I used a mixture of cara cara oranges, tangerines, and kumquats. I used this video to learn how to make these lovely citrus twists, that look much fancier and more difficult to create than they actually are.
If you have edible flowers, you can pop them on top, too! Just note the that white flowers on this cake are not actually edible, and are just there for decoration. I do recommend using edible flowers if you’re serving to a group, since folks will likely eat them since they’re on a cake 🙂 I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
Orange Almond Cake with Cream Cheese Icing
Ingredients
Orange Almond Cake
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 Cup almond flour
- 2 Teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 3/4 Cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 1/2 Cups honey
- 6 eggs room temperature
- 1/4 cup yogurt room temperature
- 1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
- 1 tablespoon finely grated organic orange zest
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Cream Cheese icing
- 8 ounces cream cheese softened
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter softened
- 2 1/4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cara cara orange thinly sliced, for garnish
Instructions
Orange Almond Cake
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and lightly flour 2 8-inch cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper rounds.
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In a medium bowl, mix together the all-purpose flour, almond flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon until combined. Set aside.
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PRO TIP — Since almond flour is expensive, store it in an airtight container in the freezer. It will stay fresh for up to 2 years this way. It will clump when frozen, though, so use a fork to poke at it enough to get pieces to break apart, then use sifter or a mesh strainer over a bowl to completely de-clump it.
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In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the honey and mix at medium speed until smooth and pale-colored, stopping to scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl to make sure the butter and honey are mixing properly, about 2 to 3 minutes.
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Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well between each addition. If the batter appears to curdle or separate, don't worry, it's completely fine. Add the yogurt, orange juice, orange zest, and vanilla extract and mix until combined. Add the flour mixture in four increments, and mix until *just* combined. Immediately evenly distribute the batter between the two greased cake pans.
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Bake in oven until the cake is deeply golden, the edges of the cake start to pull away from the pan edges, and a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 30 to 35 minutes.
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Allow the cakes to cool at room temperature for 10 minutes before unmolding from the pan and placing the cakes on a wire rack to cool completely.
Cream Cheese Icing
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In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together the cream cheese and the butter at medium speed until smooth and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
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Reduce speed to low and add the powdered sugar in four increments (to keep it from poofing up a big cloud of sugar), waiting until the powdered sugar is incorporated before adding the next bit.
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Add the vanilla extract and mix until completely combined. Increase the speed to medium and mix until the icing is light and fluffy, about 4 minutes.
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Ice the top of one of the cakes, then place the other cake on top, and ice the top of that cake, too. Decorate the top with fresh sliced citrus, serve, and enjoy!
Recipe Notes
If you want to make pretty citrus ruffles on top of your cake like in the photos in this post, you can watch the video here on how to do it.
THIS POST WAS UPDATED ON 3/12/20. YOU CAN SEE THE ORIGINAL IMAGE BELOW!
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AB- SO- LUT- LY My favorite flavor in the world, and if this don't beat it too…I would dive in, but since I just found out my sugar levels have gotten higher since I began working out, no go- but I can come over here and look right? Keep them coming so I can live through your blog, lol, please!
Hahaha! I certainly will! You know, I've been meaning to try out some of those sugar substitutes when baking to see how the flavors compare. I'll give it a try soon and let you know how it turns out 🙂
That cake looks and sounds gorgeous. I love oranges, but haven't yet baked with them somehow. This cake is so going to change that!
Awesome! They really do add a great zest to the rich semolina cake. Hope you enjoy it 🙂