Boiled orange upside down cake recipe (gluten-free)

I heard about this cake, a “boiled orange” cake from Diana Henry on Saturday Kitchen a couple of weeks ago. As I knew I had a marmalade ‘secret tea’ planned, this intrigued me. The bottom is made from boiled oranges and almonds. I added the thinly sliced caramelised oranges at the base and flipped it over. It made a moist, original cake.

Boiled orange upside down cake recipe (gluten-free)

For a 26cm cake tin

For the cake:
2 oranges, whole
3 eggs
200g caster sugar
300g ground almonds
1 tsp baking powder

For the topping:
2 oranges, thinly sliced
1 vanilla bean, scraped out or 1 tsp vanilla paste
200g caster sugar
100ml water
Big swig of triple sec liqueur or orange cointreau

Put the two oranges, whole, into a medium saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil and then simmer for one hour. Then take off the heat, remove the oranges and put them in a powerful blender such as a Vitamix or a food processor and blend.

For the topping: caramelise the orange slices by putting them in a wide saucepan with the sugar and water. Simmer on a medium heat for 15 minutes. Remove from the heat, add the liqueur if desired and leave to one side.

Make the cake by preheating the oven to 170ºc. Mix the eggs, sugar, almonds and baking powder together then add the orange pulp. Grease and flour a cake tin.
Add the orange slices to the bottom of the cake tin, covering the bottom, reserving the syrup. Then pour the cake batter on top.
Bake for 50 minutes. Remove from the oven and let it cool enough to handle. Using a palette knife, run it around the sides of the cake tin. Take a flat plate larger than the cake tin, place it on top of the cake tin and quickly flip it over. The orange slices will be on top. Reduce the remaining syrup if it is very liquid, by bringing it to the boil in a small saucepan. Then pour it over the orange slices, it will absorb into the cake.