This cassava, almond, and orange cake is wonderfully springy, spongy, moist, and of course cozy and delish.
It’s hard to imagine a baked cake can have such a lush texture and yet be eggless (because it’s vegan), grain-free and gluten-free, refined sugar-free, and also free of added oils. The cassava, almond flour, and applesauce are the magic ingredients that make it so.
I have to admit, I often neglect cassava as a baking ingredient. I know it can be a bit pricey and hard to find (though it’s becoming more easily available I’m finding). It’s also just not my favorite tasting go-to flour, however this particular recipe totally changed my perspective on its potential.
All I can say is the right texture in a gluten-free vegan cake can be a bit of a hard thing to achieve, but the combo of ingredients here can probably fool anyone into thinking this is quite a conventional cake. No crumbling, no dryness. Just sturdy, delicious coffee cake for the win.
Now I know there will be questions regarding substitutions for the cassava (I can hear them already as I type this out!). I have to say, I don’t have the answer unfortunately as I’ve yet to try this specific recipe with another flour. I’m planning on it in the near future hopefully, and that happens I’ll update this space.
However, that doesn’t mean you can’t experiment on your own. I suspect another flour should probably work fine, maybe a combination of a gluten-free flour and a bit of tapioca starch, for example, or just all purpose flour if you’re not gluten-free. I can’t guarantee results of course, as this is a hypothetical suggestion, however I do expect a full report in the comments below on how you went with it if you give a substitute flour a try here! :)
Now, if it’s almonds (and not cassava) you’re trying to swap out, you’re in luck, because that’s quite a simple substitution. Feel free to use another nut flour instead, like cashew, or hazelnut, or sunflower seed flour for example. Just keep in mind the flavor might be slightly altered, but shouldn’t be a biggie with most nuts or seeds.
If you can’t easily find alternate nut flours at the shops, you can always easily make your own. I cover how to do that in Unconventional Treats, if interested.
And of course, use some sliced or chopped alternate nuts of your choice for the topping.
Lastly, I just wanted to mention the orange flavor can be easily swapped for another flavor of your choice. For example you could add a tiny amount of espresso powder to this cake, or use fresh orange rind instead of the extract, or use other warming spices, etc.
P.S. 1. In case you’re interested in making your own applesauce for this cake, here’s an oldie recipe from the blog. Besides, then you can make these applesauce muffins next ;)
P.S. 2. This recipe works well as muffins or in a bread loaf, if you prefer.
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Cassava Almond Orange Cake
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
Yield: 6" cake
Category: Cake
Method: Baked
Cuisine: Vegan, Grain-Free
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
A moist, spongy, and cozy cassava almond and orange cake. This recipe is vegan, gluten-free, grain-free, oil-free, refined sugar-free.
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 1 cup almond flour
- ½ cup cassava flour
- 3 tbsp coconut sugar
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- 1 ½ tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ⅛ tsp salt
Wet Ingredients
- ¾ cup unsweetened applesauce
- 10 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 tsp orange extract
- ½ tsp almond extract
Toppings
- a few handfuls sliced almonds
- optional: coconut milk powder for dusting
Instructions
1. Pre-heat oven to 350F. Oil a 6″ round cake pan (or a dish of a similar size, approximately 4 cups volume). Line the bottom with a circle of parchment (optional, helps the cake come out easier). Set aside.
2. Process all dry ingredients in a food processor to combine. Add all wet ingredients and process to combine once again. Transfer this mixture into the prepared pan. Top with slices of almond (press them in very lightly).
3. Bake in a pre-heated oven for approximately 1 hour, until a skewer inserted in the center comes out dry.
4. Cool the pan on a wire rack for 10-20 mins, then remove the cake from the pan* and allow it to cool further on the wire-rack. Enjoy fresh and warm or allow it to cool all the way and enjoy later. Prior to serving you can dust it with a bit of coconut milk powder if you like.
Notes
*To flip the cake out, the easiest way to do this is to cover the pan with a plate, then holding the plate and the pan together flip them over (so that now the pan is sitting upside-down on the plate). Carefully remove the pan — the cake should be upside-down on the plate at this stage. Peel off the parchment paper circle (if you used one). Cover the cake with a serving plate, then flip the two plates upside-down and remove the top plate. The cake should now be sitting un-molded upon your serving plate.
Happy Baking!
x Audrey
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This post contains affiliate links to Amazon.com for products used to make the recipe.
Hello Audrey!
What can I substitute the almond flour w? Nut and seed allergy at home 😢
Thank you!!
Hi Connie, I would have said some other kind of seed flour for “nut-free”, but since you have a household free from both, to be honest I’m not sure there is a substitute for this specific recipe. I do however have a few baked chocolate cake recipes on the blog that are nut-free. Here are a few recipes, hopefully one of these will work :)
1. https://www.unconventionalbaker.com/recipes/blood-orange-bundt-cake-with-salted-chocolate-ganache-gluten-free-vegan-refined-sugar-free/
2. https://www.unconventionalbaker.com/recipes/duncan-hines-style-chocolate-cake-gluten-free-vegan-refined-sugar-free/
3. https://www.unconventionalbaker.com/recipes/gluten-free-vegan-chocolate-persimmon-bundt-cake-refined-sugar-free/
This looks like a wonderful recipe I’m eager to try! I don’t usually have applesauce, am allergic to apples. Can I use oil instead? and is there a preference of which type? (coconut oil, ghee, butter, sunflower oil are what I usually have at home). Thank you!
Hi Nikita. Interesting question. I’ve not tried baking this with oil instead of applesauce, so to be honest I’m not 100% sure what the outcome would be. If you give it a try let me know how it turns out :) If I had to guess, it might just work, and if I had to pick an oil I’d go with something like sunflower since it’s the most mild, or even vegan butter (because it makes everything better ;) ). A closer substitute however would be something like pear sauce, banana puree, maybe even pumpkin or sweet potato puree (though flavors might need to be adjusted a bit since some of these things have different sweetness levels).
Hi Audrey,
you could make that cake even more “orange”, using orange purée, which is whole cooked and blended organic oranges, just like applesauce ( I boil the complete fruit, even the peel). I use this orange purée in several recipe instead of applesauce in winter. Give it a try!
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Oh that sounds so good. Will definitely try that out sometime. Thanks for sharing!
Hello, can I double the recipe?
Hi Amal, I haven’t tried making a larger version of this, but I suspect it should work fine. You can also make two 6″ cakes if you don’t have time for baking experiments though. If you do double, just keep an eye out on the baking time towards the end as it might need to bake a little longer potentially.
Wonderful recipe! Made into donuts and they were a hit! My daughter who has been having a rough time being gluten-free, vegan, and refined sugar-free devoured it- thank you!!
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I’m so happy to hear that, Teju! Thanks for the lovely feedback :) Made my day!
I am excited to try this for my birthday as I have just found out. am intolerant to so many things. Do you think I could sub lemon extract for the orange extract? I suspect it wouldn’t make a difference, but I have no real experience in the baking world so I just wanted some input! Thanks so much!
Hi Elycia, yeah absolutely. I think it would be nice with lemon flavor too :)
hi audrey – i’d like to bake this in an 8” round (i want to make 2 or 3 thinner layers for a simple layer cake) – how long of a bake time would you suggest?
thanks!
Hey gf. I think it’ll probably still be close to an hour. However I’d start keeping an eye on it around the 45-50 min mark, if things seem ready (it’s no longer rising, the top is nice and golden, looks solid, etc.) you can do the skewer test (poke it in the center carefully and see if it comes out dry).
This cake looks beautiful! What make it so moist? As whenever I try to bake it never come out like this :(
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Hi Mia, it’s the combination of flours + applesauce and maple syrup for moisture.
Try this recipe out without substitutions and I’m sure it’ll be moist and fluffy :)
Hi Audrey,
The cake looks lovely, I gonna look for cassava flour to try this! Oh and, do you think it’s okay to use homemade pumpkin paste instead of applesauce? Thanks!
I wondered that too. Was going to pick up some pumpkin next week to give a pumpkin version a try :) Great minds ;)
I suspect it’ll be great here. I suspect it might rise more in the center as it bakes. I find that with applesauce the cake comes out flatter than with other things I’ve tried so far (which is not a bad think — I think the cake looks great with a flat top — but just something to be aware of in case you get a more domed cake with the pumpkin). You might need to adjust the flavors of the batter a little to taste too (in terms of saltiness, spice levels, sweetness levels). Let me know how you go with it and what you ended up using if you give it a try. Would love to hear what worked for you.