Gluten-Free Orange Pound Cake
This fantastic gluten free orange pound cake will impress you with it’s perfect orange flavor and melt-in-your-mouth texture. Packed with orange zest and fresh juice, there is no doubt your tastebuds will be happy. Super easy to make and no one will ever know it’s gluten free.
Servings 10
Calories 486kcal
Ingredients
Wet Goods
- 1 cup castor/superfine granulated sugar (200g)
- 2 tbs zest of 3 oranges (16g/.5oz)
- ¾ cup butter softened (170g - 1 ½ sticks)
- 4 eggs large, room temperature (200g)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (5ml)
Dry Goods
- 2 cup gluten free 1:1 flour blend (240g)
- ⅔ cup almond flour (65g)
- 3 teaspoon baking powder (15g)
- ¼ teaspoon salt (1.5g)
- ¾ cup orange juice fresh squeezed (180g), Alternately Add with Dry Goods:
The Glaze
- 1 ½ cup powdered sugar sifted (180g)
- 2 tbs orange juice (30ml)
- 2 tbs heavy cream (30ml)
Instructions
- Adjust the oven rack to the middle position, pre-heat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC) and prepare 9”x5” loaf pan (2lb/900g) with parchment.
- In a bowl, sift together the gluten free 1:1 flour blend (w/xanthan), almond flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- Add the sugar and orange zest to a bowl and use your fingertips to rub the zest into the sugar. This helps to release more essential oils from the zest.
- Cream the butter and sugar (with the added orange zest) together until pale and fluffy. This can be done with a hand mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition, until well combined. It's very important that your eggs are at room temperature and that you add them one at a time to maintain the emulsion of the butter as much as possible. If you forgot to take your eggs out of the fridge, place them in warm tap water for 5-10 minutes before using them.
- Add the vanilla and mix until combined.
- Beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, alternately add the dry ingredients (in three batches) and the orange juice (in two batches) to the butter-sugar mixture, whisking well after each addition, until you get a fairly smooth cake batter with no flour clumps.
- Transfer the cake batter into the prepared loaf tin, smooth out the top, and bake in the pre-heated oven at 350ºF (180ºC) for about 1 hour - 1 hour 5 minutes or until risen, golden brown on top and an inserted toothpick comes out clean. The loaf should have a large crack running along the center.
- Allow to cool in the loaf pan for about 10-15 minutes, then transfer the cake out of the tin and onto a wire cooling to cool completely.
Notes
- The alternating way of adding dry and wet ingredients helps to maintain the emulsion of the butter in the cake batter as much as possible. When alternating dry and wet ingredients, make sure to end with the dry.
- If your final batter looks slightly split or curdled due to the large amount of acidic orange juice that you've added. Do not worry, it will come together perfectly.
- Why so much orange juice? To help the gluten free flour absorb moisture.
- Why use castor superfine sugar? Because superfine sugar has a finer grain than traditional granulated, allowing it to dissolve and mix more easily. This is useful in airy, delicate baked goods and desserts. You'll often see it in recipes for meringues, souffles, macarons, puddings, and mousses.
- If the cake starts browning too quickly or too much, cover it with parchment or foil and continue baking until done.
