Flourless Chocolate Orange Cake

This flourless chocolate orange cake is rich, fudgy, and naturally gluten-free. Pair it up with some vanilla ice cream for an extra treat. It's perfect for birthdays, Passover, Valentine's Day, the holidays, or any celebration.

I admit, I got a little excited when I saw bags of almond meal at Trader Joe's and may have purchased too many!  I needed to bake with it, so I finally decided to make a flourless chocolate cake.

My flourless cake is made with dark chocolate combined with oranges. I know the combination of chocolate and orange is not for everyone, but it's a favorite of mine.

For those of you who do love it though, I also have a dark chocolate orange tart. And if you prefer vanilla you can always hop on over to my vanilla based recipe for a layered orange cake.

What Makes This Flourless Chocolate Orange Cake Different

Most flourless chocolate orange cakes fall into one of two camps. Some start with melted chocolate and butter. Others use whole oranges that you boil and puree, peel and all.

This recipe does neither. You grind the chocolate in a food processor and whisk it into almond flour, so there's no melting step and no butter in the batter. The orange flavor comes from fresh juice and zest, so you skip boiling and pureeing whole oranges.

Unlike many other recipes, this flourless chocolate cake is not too sweet. It also has just the right amount of fudgy-ness without losing its cake-like properties. In other words, it still has a nice crumb. It's very moist and rich without being heavy.

Because almond flour stands in for wheat flour, the cake is naturally gluten-free. The recipe is adapted from Bon Appétit.

How to Make an Orange and Chocolate Flourless Cake

Since this cake has no chemical leaveners such as baking soda or powder, its rise relies on eggs and aerating the batter while mixing. In the first step, you make a "flour mixture" out of finely chopped chocolate and almond flour.

This recipe differs from other chocolate flourless cakes because you use almond meal and run the chocolate through a food processor instead of melting it. There's no butter in the batter, either. Next, you combine the cocoa with the juice and zest.

And then it gets a little tricky! First, the egg yolks are beaten with sugar until they become very pale and thick. It should be ribbon like when you lift the whisk attachment away from the bowl.

Notice how the batter stays connected to the bowl and whisk on the top right in the picture above. Once it reaches this stage, you can combine it with the cocoa and orange mixture.

Second, the egg whites are whipped separately to create a meringue with stiff peaks. A stiff peak means the meringue forms a "peak" that stays straight up when you turn the whisk upside down (as shown above on the bottom left).

Finally, you gently fold the two mixtures together being very careful that you don't deflate the batter. You took a lot of time to get that air in there so you want to keep it! Transfer the batter to your prepared pan and bake.

Tips for Making Orange and Chocolate Flourless Cake

• Use a whisk to thoroughly mix the almond flour and ground chocolate. Be sure to remove any clumps or they will show in the finished cake.
• Use a quality dark chocolate for a deep chocolate flavor.
• I used a mixture of Dutch process cocoa and black cocoa powders for a darker cake.  

What to Serve With Flourless Chocolate Orange Cake

A scoop of vanilla bean ice cream is my go-to. It may seem plain, but vanilla works with the chocolate without clashing with the orange.

For a third flavor, serve it with raspberry sauce or white chocolate sauce. A dusting of powdered sugar and a few fresh or candied orange slices are all the decoration it needs. (I give each candied slice a twist before laying it on the cake.)

If you loved this recipe, you may also like my recipe for individual flourless molten chocolate lava cakes with kumquat sauce.

If you are looking for something more basic and gluten free, try my oat flour chocolate chip cookies.