Nanny's Orange and Coconut Cake made gluten free

5 from 5 votes

Nanny's Orange and Coconut Cake made gluten free

My darling Nanny used to bake for the family a lot, I remember her cinnamon freezer cookies (also on the website) and this cake was always one of my favourites. Now I've developed it to be gluten free for my Coeliac daughter and dairy and egg free so I can eat it. Can be made using eggs and dairy if fine with these.

Prep Time2

Cook Time1 20

Total Time3 20

Course: Tea Time

Cuisine: Vegan

Keyword: Coconut, Dairy Free, Easy, Gluten Free, Orange, Simple, Vegan

Servings: slices

Calories: 487kcal

Author: Glutarama

Ingredients

75 g desiccated coconut if you hate coconut, switch this out for ground almonds
1 orange squeeze juice and remove zest
3 tbsp sherry or you can use a orange liqueur (for alcohol free add extra orange juice instead
100g g caster sugar
150 g butter I use a vegan block of Flora, Pure would also work.
170 g gluten free self raising flour or all purpose with 1tsp baking powder and ½tsp bicarb
75 g glace cherries
75 g candied mixed peel
230 g sultanas
2 egg(s) I make 2x flaxseed eggs [see notes]
1 tbsp caster sugar to dust over the warm cake

Instructions

Soak the coconut first

In a bowl measure out the desiccated coconut and pour in 5tbsp of orange juice from your freshly squeezed orange and 3tbsp of an alcohol of your choice. I used a orange infused gin in the recipe pictured but in the past I've used Cointreau or sherry. If you want an alcohol-free cake add 3 extra spoons of the orange juice (assuming you managed to squeeze enough)
Leave this mixture soaking for about 2hrs (1 if you're in a hurry) to allow the coconut to soak up all the flavour.

To make the cake

Preheat your oven to 170°C | 150°C fan | 325°F | Gas 3
Cream the 'butter' and sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy.
Add your 2 eggs or flaxseed eggs [see notes] and beat again until incorporated
Add the gluten free self raising flour and beat well, this will be a stiff cake mixture at this point.
To this add the sultanas, mixed peel, glace cherries (I cut mine in half) and orange zest and give it a good stir with a spatula.
Finally spoon in the infused desiccated coconut and give a final mix to fully combine all ingredients.
I prepare a 20cm round cake tin with a loose bottom. I use a silicone cake liner (affiliate link in the post) so no need to oil or flour the tin.
Spoon the stiff cake mixture into the tin and smooth to the edges with the back of spoon or spatula.
Pop into the oven for 1hr 20mins minutes or until until the cake is a beautiful golden colour and a skewer comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5mins before removing from the cake tin. I sprinkle the cake top with caster sugar at this stage so the sugar sticks to the top as the cake cools.
Slice and enjoy once just cool enough or enjoy later, this cake will last three days easily if stored in an airtight container.

Notes

How to make a flax egg

to make 1 flax egg you need the following ingredients:
- 1tbsp ground flax seed
- 3tbsp water
- 1tsp psyllium husk (optional but does add elasticity to baking)

simply add all ingredients to a glass and stir before measuring out the other recipe ingredients, by the time you come to use your 'egg' mixture it will have thickened to a frog-spawn consistency (thicker if you added psyllium husk)

Then just add to your baking as you would an egg. For 2 eggs double the ingredients but note that recipes that require more than two eggs may fail due to lack of support in the structure.

Nutrition