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What a wonderful cake! My daughter couldnโt stop eating another slice. It came out just like your photo, and tastes like a fresh orange pound cake. Iโm in love! ~ Lilly

My flourless tangerine cake is made without any flour or oil ~ yet it’s fluffy, moist, and fabulous!
This is one of those times you just have to take my word for it, and give this unique flourless tangerine cake a try. The minute you spot great tangerines, put this easy recipe on your to-do list, you won’t regret it.
This gluten free cake is made with whole tangerines, peel and all!
Cakes made with whole citrus fruits have always fascinated me. The concept comes from the sunny island of Sicily, where citrus trees grow like weeds. The fruit is boiled, de-seeded, and processed into a brilliant orange puree. The puree is blended with eggs, sugar, and almond flour, poured into a tart pan, and baked into the moistest, most delicate, tangerine cake you’ve ever tasted. This is an experience not to be missed.
what you’ll need for flourless tangerine cake
- fresh juicy tangerines
- the better your fruit, the tastier your cake will be.
- eggs
- white sugar
- almond meal or almond flour
- baking powder
- Amaretto, optional
- confectioner’s sugar for dusting
I use a high speed blender to make a tangerine puree
It’s hard to believe that the boiled tangerines, above, will magically morph into such a delightfully fluffy cake with so few ingredients and such minimal effort. It blows my mind every time. I used my Vitamix, which does an amazing job blitzing the tangerines into a silky puree, but any good food processor will work.
The right pan for this recipe
I bake my flourless tangerine cake in a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom so I can lift it out for serving and cutting. (You can also use a cheesecake pan.) The cake bakes up moist and dense, but with a light, almost sponge cake texture. I know it sounds strange, but it really is light and dense at the same time.
This tangerine cake is moist enough to make ahead
The cake slices like a dream, and will stay most for several days at room temperature. If you’d like to make it a day ahead, dust with powdered sugar just before serving.
decorating the cake with a lace effect
To get the pretty lace effect lay a doily or piece of lace on top of the cooled cake and then sift powdered sugar over all. Carefully life off the lace and voila! Don’t be afraid to try, you can always cover up with a solid layer of powered sugar if necessary.
See my post on How to Decorate a Cake with Lace for detailed instructions on how to achieve this pretty and surprisingly easy look. The technique is so versatile and can be used for all kinds of special occasion desserts from the winter holidays, to Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Easter, etc.
Sometimes the message of a post can get drowned out by all the text and photos…so I’ll just put it here in plain black and white~
Try this, it’s sensational.
After making this cake in 2012 I went on to make a FLOURLESS WHOLE MEYER LEMON CAKE in 2013 which is wonderful, too. I’m already experimenting with pink grapefruit and blood oranges ~ I’ll keep you posted ๐
Tips for making flourless tangerine cake
- use good, sweet, seasonal tangerines…your cake will be as good as your fruit, so choose the best!
- Since you will be using the whole fruit, I recommend organic tangerines, if possible.
- Weigh the puree so that you get the proper amount in your cake. It should be 11 1/2 ounces.
- You can experiment with flavoring this cake. I added Amaretto on a whim, and you could use other spirits like Grand Marnier. You could also leave out the alcohol and use some vanilla or almond extract.
Flourless Tangerine Cake
Video
Equipment
- 9 inch spring form pan or tart pan with removeable bottom
Ingredients
- 1 pound tangerines to make 11 1/2 ounces of puree, approximately 5-6, but weigh them
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup white sugar
- 3 cups almond meal or almond flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 Tbsp Amaretto, optional
- confectioner’s sugar for dusting
Instructions
- Set oven to 350F Butter a 9 inch spring form pan
- Step one is the only time consuming part of this cake. Wash your tangerines and put them in a saucepan covered with cold water. (They’ll float, but don’t worry about that) Bring to a boil, and boil for a full 15 minutes. The boiling removes the bitterness in the citrus skin.
- Drain and let the tangerines cool for a bit. Slice them in half, and then in half again. Remove any seeds and discard, but do this on a plate so you don’t lose any juice or pulp. Put it all in a food processor and process until completely smooth. You may have to stop and scrape down the sides a few times. My finished puree weighed 11 1/2 oz, (about a cup) and I highly recommend weighing the puree and only using the 11 1/2 ounces. Too much puree will throw off the balance of ingredients in this cake.
- Set aside, or refrigerate until the next day if you want to do this ahead.
- The rest is a one bowl deal: Beat the eggs and sugar until light and creamy. Fold in the almond meal, orange pulp, baking powder, and Amaretto, if using. Mix until well combined.
- Pour into your prepared tart pan and smooth out evenly.
- Bake for 50-60 minutes, until lightly golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. If the cake is browning too fast, cover loosely with a sheet of foil.
- Cool on a rack for 10 minutes, then remove from the pan to finish cooling.
- Dust with confectioner’s sugar. Decorate with some citrus zest if you like.
This cake is wonderful! Thank you, Sue, for a “naturally” gluten-free dessert option that is so tasty and so easy to put together. I used seedless Mandarin Cuties because that’s what was available (and what a lovely bonus that I didn’t have to remove any seeds!) I made the tangerine purรฉe the day before, which made the one-bowl assembly really easy the day of baking. I made two full recipes in the same day. For the first run through, I used a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom and included 2 Tbs. Grand Marnier. For the second, I used 4 individual tart pans with removable bottoms plus 13 silicone muffin cups and included 1 Tbs. vanilla. I was nervous about the latter, but the mini tarts and muffins worked well. Two of the muffins didn’t come out of their holders cleanly, but the chef (ahem) and her partner were pleased to consider those an opportunity for quality control ๐ before sharing the smaller portions with neighbors. In future, I plan to use other commenters’ suggestions about serving with whipped cream on the side and pomegranate arils, although the cake doesn’t really need anything. I am also thinking it would be delicious for breakfast (as someone recommended) toasted with butter and some Maldon sea salt.
I would like to know if I can use my organic oranges from my tree or would it come out too bitter? Thanks Sue.
It’s really hard to say, Darlene, it depends on the actual fruit. If the skins are thick then I would not use them, but if they’re thin, it should work.
This recipie is amazing. I did 12 tangelos, couldn’t get tangerines, and had enough pureee to freeze for two more cakes, made this cake, cut into 20 tiny portions, put in the freezer, and I have a wee snack from time to time, such a tasty flavour, and all of it,very bite has nutrition. It was easy to make, I just should of not used fan bake, it would of been more even all over, and I didn’t get my foil on, until 30 mins, so slight dark around the edges, but still edible. I’ll get it perfect next time. Thanks Sue, enjoying your emails.
Can you make cupcakes with this?
I don’t think so Patricia, this type of recipe works best in a tart pan.
I’ve made this every November for the last 2 years, I make it right when I find tangerines at my store, and oh my, this is such a beautiful cake. Thanks Sue!
Thanks Barbara, I do the same, and in fact, I just found the first tangerines of 2021, so I’m ready!
I can’t wait to try this! I can hardly believe it will work, but if it does, it’s exactly the kind of dessert I love!
Hi! Thank you for the recipe; but unfortunately, both time I made the cake, it turned out quite bitter. ๐
The first time I used the skin the other I peeled the Mandarins. The only two ingredients I added were a tiny tiny bit of pure almond extract (1/3 of a tea spoon) and a very tiny bit of dark chocolate pieces.
Could you please advise on what I did wrong? Why does it turn out so bitter? Lastly, can I substitute mandarin with orange?
Many thanks.
Tara
My son wanted a Gluten free cake and this was perfect. Not too sweet but moist and delicious. This is a keeper recipe. Baked for 2nd time but I used Dole mandarin oranges that comes in individual cups. Drain the juice and smashed the fruit. If was delicious.
Thanks Neida.
This cake is absolutely delicious. I followed the recipe except I didn’t have any Amaretto, so I couldn’t add that. It turned out very well and everyone LOVED it! When I make it again, and I will be making it again, I will have to try adding the Amaretto. The suggestion to serve the cake with whipped cream was a wonderful idea. The whipped cream is a cool and creamy contrast to the zesty sweetness of the cake. Excellent recipe. Kudos!
I would really like to try this as there are so few lactose free desserts…however I have an almond allergy too. Is there any alternative to almond flour?
Well, you might try another nut flour, if you can tolerate it, because I think that other gf flours might behave differently in this recipe.
Would using the leftover orange pulp after squeezing a bag of oranges do the same thing?
This recipe uses all the juice, pulp, and peel, so it’s a little different.