Vegan orange cake using a WHOLE orange including the rind just like the classic Sicilian orange cake. Gluten-free, grain-free, eggless, flourless and uses only 5 ingredients!
This cake tastes exactly how I remember whole orange cake or flourless orange almond cake. It's moist, has a beautiful crumb from the almond meal, fluffy yet reminds me of French financiers or friands just like my pistachio cake recipe.
It's bursting with orange flavor (yet isn't bitter from the orange rind) and has the most gorgeous natural orange hue!
For variations of this cake, check out my vegan whole lemon cake or flourless strawberry cake. Or if you prefer chocolate desserts, see my flourless vegan chocolate cake.
What's a whole orange cake? Is it vegan-friendly?
A whole orange cake has origins in Sicily, Morocco and the Middle East. The cake is traditionally made using whole oranges (with their rind still on) and primarily almond meal/flour. The cake is flourless, very moist and is more like a French financier or friand in texture rather than a sponge cake.
Conventionally, a whole orange cake recipe uses up to 6 eggs so is definitely not vegan (or easily veganisable). When a recipe calls for a HIGH amount of eggs, they can't easily be substituted, especially in a gluten-free recipe!
Eggs have three functions in cakes: binding, rise and fat. One simple egg replacer will not work here!
I tried to veganise the flourless orange almond cake MANY times over the years by substituting eggs with flax eggs, chia eggs and aquafaba.
However, they all made the cake TOO moist, dense and/or minimized its beautiful orange hue. I added more almond flour to balance the extra moisture but the cake was still missing structure (typical of gluten-free cakes which don't incorporate a starch).
Basically, we need an egg replacer AND a gluten-free flour stabilizer!
The simple magical ingredient
The magical missing ingredient is POTATO STARCH. Not potato protein, not potato flour but potato starch. You can also use corn starch (corn flour)! These starches are:
- often used with other gluten free flours to help bind and thicken ingredients
- often mixed with water and used as a vegan egg substitute
- a dry ingredient and doesn't weigh down the vegan orange cake (compared to chia or flax eggs)
- tasteless and colorless which allows the orange to shine!
If we were using the potato starch as a 1:1 egg replacer, I'd need to add 1-2 cups of water to this recipe which is already very moist. Adding more liquid to the recipe also changes the texture of the cake and makes it less like the original whole orange cake! I omitted most of the water and the cake worked beautifully!
You can get potato and corn starch in some major supermarkets, health food stores and Asian specialty stores. In Asian stores, they are both very affordable!
I also increased the baking powder to help the cake rise and bake through. In non-vegan cakes, eggs don't just bind ingredients but make them fluffy!
5 ingredients you'll need
Even with all the changes, my vegan orange cake uses only 5 ingredients plus water. It's oil-free, butter-free, eggless, dairy-free and flourless. You'll need:
- A whole orange
- Almond flour (in Australia, this is blanched almond meal)
- Potato starch (or corn starch)
- Sugar
- Baking powder
And water... but is that even an ingredient?! As always, the exact ingredient amounts are at the bottom of this post in the grey box :).
Steps for making this vegan orange cake
First, we need to boil a whole orange in water. Keep on the rind (or skin) but remove the 'stem' (if there is one). We'll eventually be eating the rind so I'd recommend using an organic orange! My orange weighed just over 250g but it doesn't matter if yours is 10g lighter or heavier.
The orange doesn't need to be completely submerged in water. There just needs to be enough water so it boils/steams! Your home will smell absolutely lovely when you boil your orange... I need to do that more often haha :).
Once the orange is cooked, drain and discard all the water. Roughly chop the orange so you can fit it in your food processor. If there are any seeds, remove them at this stage!
Next, add the orange (rind and all) to a food processor and pulse until it's pureed. It doesn't need to be extremely fine but 'smooth enough'. Any chunks in the orange will add beautiful specks to your final cake.
Next, simply add ALL the ingredients to the food processor and pulse until combined. The vegan orange cake batter will be quite thick which is exactly what we want! If your batter is runnier, I'd recommend adding a little more potato starch.
Normally I wouldn't recommend mixing cake batter in a food processor as over-mixing can create a tough cake. However, gluten is the culprit of tough cakes and this cake is gluten-free so you don't have to worry about over-mixing!
Next, scoop (or pour) the thick batter into your cake tin. The surface will be a little rough so just smooth it out using a spatula or spoon. If you want an extremely smooth top, dip your spatula or spoon in water and use that to smooth the top.
Tips for baking the cake
The whole orange cake has a high amount of almond flour so we need to bake this at a slightly lower temperature than normal. Nuts tend to burn quickly so a lower temperature prevents this from happening!
The cake is ready when it is slightly golden brown on top and you can insert a skewer into the middle and it comes out mostly clean. A skewer with wet batter means the cake isn't ready. A skewer with a few cake crumbs is fine!
If you have an overly hot oven, your flourless orange almond cake might turn golden brown before the cake is cooked inside. If so, simply turn down the heat of your oven AND place an oven-safe plate on top of your cake tin (as long as it doesn't touch the cake).
When you remove the cake from the oven, it's very delicate so let it cool in the cake pan. When it's cool, you'll be able to easily remove it!
Serving the cake
This eggless orange cake is perfect for morning tea or with your daily coffee! It can be enjoyed plain or accompanied with some:
- thick dairy free yogurt
- dairy free cream
- dairy free ice cream
If you want to bring this cake to a celebration, you can top the cake with beautiful rose petals and pistachios.
I think the cake is already full of flavor (and sweetness) but if you really want to decorate it further, I'd recommend topping it with yogurt or a simple icing such as the one in this lemon pistachio cake. I wouldn't recommend buttercream frosting as the cake is already quite sweet.
Ingredient substitutions and customizations
Almond flour is about 15% fat so adjustments need to be made if we replace it. I'd recommend using a combination of all-purpose flour and light-tasting vegetable oil (listed in the recipe card notes). The cake will be fluffier and have a more subtle orange flavor compared to the original.
No, this won't work. The whole orange has pulp, fiber and the rind which makes the cake moist and gives it structure. Orange juice just won't compare with the texture and FLAVOR of a whole orange!
I haven't tried this but it should work if you cut off the rind. You don't need to boil the orange but just blend the orange before using it in the recipe.
Yes!
More easy vegan cake recipes
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Vegan Whole Orange Cake
Ingredients
- 1 x (~250 g) medium-sized organic orange, with the rind still on
- 250 g (2 ½ cups) almond flour / blanched almond meal, (note 1)
- 150 g (¾ cup) granulated sugar, (note 2)
- 85 g (½ cup + 1 tablespoon) potato starch, or corn starch / corn flour (plus more if needed)
- 80 g (⅓ cup) water
- 3 heaped teaspoons baking powder
Instructions
- I'd recommend weighing the ingredients for this recipe rather than using the cups measurement. Like all of my recipes, this whole orange cake was tested using grams except the baking powder.
Preparing the orange:
- Thoroughly wash the skin of the orange and remove the stem, if it's still on. Add around 4 cups of water to a small saucepan and place the whole orange in it. Over medium heat, simmer the orange for 30 minutes until you can pierce the skin with no resistance. Drain the water and allow the orange to cool.
- Roughly chop the orange and remove any seeds. Place it in a food processor and blitz until it's pureed. Don't worry if there are little bits of rind in the puree.
Making the cake batter:
- Preheat the oven to 170°C (340°F). Grease or line a 20 cm (8 inch cake tin) (Note 3).
- Add the rest of the cake ingredients to the food processor. Process until the mixture is combined and quite thick. If your batter is more runny, add 1 tablespoon (7g) of potato starch at a time and mix until it forms a thick batter. If in doubt, err towards a thicker batter rather than thinner batter.
- Scoop the cake batter into a your cake tin. Smooth the top with a spoon or spatula.
Baking the cake:
- Bake the cake for 35-40 minutes (Note 4). The cake is ready when a skewer can be inserted into the middle and there is no wet batter on it (some crumbs are fine). Allow the cake to completely cool in the cake tin.
- To serve, dust the cake with icing sugar (Note 5). Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature for 1 day, in the fridge for 3 days or in the freezer for up to 1 month.
Notes
- The total amount of almond flour can be substituted with 1 cup (125g) all purpose flour and ½ cup (125g) light-tasting vegetable oil such as sunflower or rapeseed. We have to add oil to compensate for the natural oils normally found in almond flour.
- This amount of sugar creates a mildly sweet cake. You can decrease the sugar to ½ cup (100g) but it will create a more dense cake which may be a little bitter.
- The cake bakes very well in muffin tins and can be divided into smaller cake tins, of course with different baking times. However, baking the whole quantity of the cake in a smaller tin (for example 15 cm or 7 inches) may cause 'dense spots' throughout the cake.
- If your oven is too hot, your cake may be cooked on the outside but still raw inside. If so, turn down the oven temperature and cover the tin with an oven-safe plate, as long as it doesn't touch the cake.
- Alternatively you can also:
- Drizzle a simple syrup on the cake. Combine ¼ cup (80g) orange juice and 2 tbsp of sugar in a small saucepan and heat until the sugar has dissolved. Drizzle on the cake while it's warm.
- Top the cake with a simple icing, such as the one in this recipe (but substiute the lemon juice with orange juice). Wait until the cake is completely cool before you ice the cake.
Nutrition
This recipe was originally published in November 2017 and updated a few times since then. Vegan baking science has grown a lot over the years!
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Made this cake for a friends birthday and she loved it so much she wanted the recipe! Thank you Anthea for a simple and well written recipe. Will be making this often!
Aw that's lovely Raji! So glad that all the instructions were clear for you too. Thank you so much!
This came out so good and I cannot wait to make it again. The texture was perfect. I baked it in a slightly larger 24 cm round pan at 165 for 35-40 minutes. I used soy milk instead of water. Thoroughly enjoyed by vegans and non-vegans alike.
That's so wonderful to hear Jane! Thanks so much for your feedback!
We're really happy with this recipe, I'm feeling very grateful because we would have kept fiddling around with nonvegan recipes but you saved us all the work! Thank you!
I'm so glad you enjoyed this cake! And it's absolutely my pleasure :). Thanks for your support x
I’ve been trying to start vegan baking and this is the first cake I’ve make that ended up with the right structure/texture. The flavor and color are also beautiful! Very excited to try more of your recipes.
That's amazing Kristen, especially as your first vegan cake! I hope you enjoy my other recipes too. Thanks so much for your lovely feedback 🙂
Thanks for the lovely recipe! I followed the recipe and used Anthea’s guidelines + a comment left by a reviewer (Bruna A) to sub in AP flour as I didn’t have almond meal on hand. I reduced a cup of fresh orange juice with 2tbsp of sugar and applied it as glaze, it was like a very thin sticky layer of marmalade. The cake came out beautifully. The orange flavor shone through in every bite. We have a ton of navel oranges on our tree right now and I wanted to use them up. I’ll be making this often. I can’t wait to also try this with our Meyer lemons.
That sounds so so delicious Dee! I love the sound of your orange glaze - I'll have to try that next time. Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment!
Delicious! I just made this wonderful cake today. It turned out perfectly! Thanks so very much for the recipe!
That's amazing Jane! Thanks so much for your comment!
It came out too dense nd wet !!!! Taste great but texture really a failure. I measured everything exactly and done as written. So ... I feel very disappointed..i had guests ..
I'm sorry this didn't work for you! It's a reader favourite recipe and I've tested it successfully many times so I'd love to figure out what happened with your cake. A few questions:
1. Did you use the cups or grams measurement? I'd recommend grams for this recipe.
2. What was the texture of your batter? Was it like a paste or was it like regular cake batter?
3. Is there a chance your baking powder was too old? I find that old baking powder also makes the cake dense and wet.
There are so many factors which can lead to a failed cake. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help.
This cake is so delicious! I used Orange juice instead of the water and also substituted the almond flour like you said. I love that you always give different options for your recipes! I will definitely bake it again. Maybe with a chocolate glaze?
Anyway, thank you so much!
Oooh I love the idea of using orange juice instead of water! I think a chocolate glaze would complement the acidic tartness very well. Thanks so much for your feedback Rikki 🙂
Another great recipe, thank you! I wasn't sure how this would work out as I usually make an orange and almond cake that has heaps of eggs in it but this worked just as well and to be honest you couldn't tell the difference with this vegan whole orange cake. I loved that it catered to my vegan, gluten free and dairy free guests- ticking all the boxes!
Aw that's lovely Sue-Anne! It's great you couldn't tell the difference from a non-vegan whole orange cake too. Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment!
Delicious and simple, but super dense! Followed exactly as written, weighed ingredients, batter looked as pictured. The only difference was my orange as bigger than 250g.
Glad you enjoyed the flavour of this cake! Yes, using a bigger orange makes the cake more dense (speaking from experience). The cake is meant to have some crumb, almost like a French friand cake.
This recipe is delicious! I recently had to adopt a low fat diet due to health issues and have been missing holiday baked goods. This was very easy to make and stays extremely moist. Be aware that the texture is almost like marzipan vs. light and fluffy. I topped mine with toasted sliced almonds sprinkled with powdered sugar, and had berries on the side. This cake pleases vegans and nonvegans alike. So good! I'll be making this again.
Hello , can we make this recipe with almond powder or ground almond?
Hi! Almond flour is just ground blanched almonds so yes! However, I'm not sure what almond powder is?
I have just tried this recipe and I can't recommend it enough, it tastes fur-nominal! And your photography is out of this world, I was wondering what camera and lens you use for your photos x
Aw thanks so much Kate, I'm so glad you enjoyed these! And I *love* the word 'fur-nominal', I need to use that :). For photos in the last year, I used a Canon R mirrorless with a 50mm lens. I hope that helps!
I so wanted this to work, as I love whole orange and almond cake, and wanted a plant-based version! Unfortunately, whilst the flavour was fantastic, the texture was really solid. However, I'm not sure I used the correct flours. I always get confused by "almond flour", "ground almonds" and "almond meal". We in the UK call things by different names. I used ground almonds, which I have always used in the version with eggs, but maybe that was wrong? Similarly, I used "cornflour" which is not the same as "cornmeal", but I think is the same as "cornstarch". Despite the texture, we still ate it all, as it was delicious! Help!
Hey! I think Australians describe ingredients in the same way as the UK so it's likely you used the right ingredients. 'Almond flour' refers to ground up blanched almonds and is quite fine, but more coarse than regular wheat flour (just like the picture). And corn flour is the same as corn starch but not corn meal. Like the ingredients picture, it's a fine white floury substance :).
I find that the cake is more solid if too much liquid was measured or the baking powder used isn't as strong. Was your batter thick or thin? Did you weigh your ingredients or measure them using cups? Another factor is if the orange you used was too heavy as that adds too much liquid. I hope that helps!
Thank you very much. I weighed all the ingredients, rather than using cups. The batter was very thick and, in fact, didn't seem to be enough for an 8 inch tin (so was quite a thin layer). I'll definitely try it again, as the flavour was so good! Maybe I was just unlucky the first time around.
Hi, I make a non-vegan version of this cake that uses olive oil. Could that be used instead of water in your recipe? Thanks!
It may work - I haven't tried so can't vouch for results. The cake is very very moist with just the water so I imagine it'd be even more moist with the oil!
This is an excellent recipe. I tried it once but I feel I added too much water! The cake was too moist as the Almond meal also became ‘soggy’ ( I think I should use Almond FLOUR as advised! ) So am going to try again with non dairy milk in the recommended volume. Also Almond flour.
Thank you! Yes, those ingredient changes can make the cake too moist! I'm sure when you make it again, the cake will be better :). Thanks for your feedback 🙂
Hi,
I’ve made the egg version of this cake. But would love to try this one because my husband is vegan.
Would tapioca starch or arrowroot powder work in place of potato starch?
Hey, I wouldn't recommend tapioca starch because it makes the cake 'chewy'. I haven't tried arrowroot powder for this recipe. However, I know that 85g of potato/corn starch can't be substituted 1:1 for arrowroot powder.
Lovely cake! I added cardamom and one table spoon of rose water to the recipe and it was like heaven! I really appreciate the effort you put to bring this recipe without eggs. Thank you!
That sounds so so lovely! I need to try that combination next time :). Thanks so much for your feedback x