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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.
I’m trying this today for my sister’s birthday, her boyfriend is allergic to all nuts, so I have powered oatmeal, I’m going to try it, hoping it well work just as well. I also am going to cut down some of the sugar, and try it with strawberries…. I’m hoping it works!
Good luck, Cassandra. I’m not sure the oatmeal will do the trick, but it’s worth experimenting with!
I made this a few weeks ago and it was WONDERFUL. Served with a date caramel glaze/frosting and sea salt caramel ice cream. The caramel and tangerine combo was a hit! Question — has anyone tried with pureed strawberries? I thought it might be a great Valentine’s Day cake.
I never thought about using anything other than citrus fruits, Nicole, but now that I think about it, I don’t see why other fruits wouldn’t work…if you try it let me know how it turns out!
I tried it with pureed strawberries yesterday. We really liked it. Very, very, very moist. I baked for about 45 min (same for tangerine cake). A bit sweeter than the tangerines, so perhaps could use a little less sugar next time depending on sweetness of berries/fruit. The color is a dull pink, but still pretty especially with fresh strawberries and powdered sugar on top. I think other berries or peaches would work well too. Perhaps even pear? A very versatile cake. Thanks!!
That’s so funny because I was actually awake last night thinking that I should amend my reply to say that strawberries probably wouldn’t work because they’d be too wet! But I guess it sounds like you kind of made it work!
Yes, it worked quite well, actually. I might use a little less of the puree and I might “swirl” it through the cake next time rather than mixing it. Fun to experiment with this recipe.
If you use one third apple with the strawberries they will not be as watery. I make lots of fruit leathers and the apple gives the strawberries a little more substance. You can also add 1 tablespoon of honey to the fruit mix as well.
hi, this looks great!
I was just wondering whether or not i could substitute sugar (or just use less) and use something like honey?
Also, do you think poppy seeds would go nicely with the cake?
Thanks! ๐
Poppy seed would be fine to add, Chelle, but I’m not sure about the honey. It’s worth a try!
Yikes…Am in the middle of making this for dinner party tonight and when I finished mooshing up my puree I have almost 2.5 cups! (I guess my “large tangerines” were actually oranges.) Should I weigh or measure my puree so that I don’t put too much into the mix? Thanks!
Yes Kate measure out about a cup of the puree and use that.
I poured my extra purรฉe into an ice cube try. I’m freezing it to use in smoothies!
Oh I love the idea of strawberry ice cubes!
This sounds yummy, planning to try this. What temperature should this be baked at, I didn’t see it listed in the recipe?
It’s just at the top, Maggie, 350F. I hope you like it — let me know what you think!
I can’t wait to try this for my son’s birthday. One question: can you substitute flaxseed meal for the almond meal?
Not sure, Carol, but I’d say give it a try! Let me know how it turns out…
Well, it turned out pretty well! It tasted great but it seemed a little dry (which could be from the flax meal). Maybe I could use more orange next time? (I did use Cuties instead of tangerines.) Any suggestions?
I just came upon your website – so beautiful and just my kind of food. Someone from India gave me a recipe for “Whole Orange Cake” – same concept of boiling the fruit and hers calls for an hour; perhaps I’ll try for less as you do. She actually cooks hers in a pressure cooker for 15 minutes which sounds pretty cool. Hers uses some flour and I’m looking forward to trying this flourless one. I like making my own almond meal in the processor (being careful not to turn it into almond butter, of course.) But first I toast the slivered almonds in a 350 oven in a single layer, shaking here and there, for up to 10 minutes or so, just until light brown, then cool before processing. I’ll be trying your recipe this week! One question: I know it keeps well, but for how many days? I may need to freeze mine and wonder if you’ve ever tried that. Thanks!
Hi Lucy— It will keep for a week in the fridge, and I’m sure you could freeze it, but maybe hold off on frosting it until you are ready to serve. Let me know how it turns out. The long boiling is to remove the bitterness in the skin of the fruit, and the peels of Meyer Lemons aren’t very bitter to begin with, so my boiling time is short.
This cake has been extremely popular around here! I’ve had fun experimenting with different techniques. I made it two more times this month using oranges again (boiled for an hour as I had before.) First Cake: After scraping the processed oranges into the large bowl, I quickly processed the eggs and sugar before adding them in, then stirred in the baking powder and almonds. When the cake came out pretty flat, I figured that I’d overmixed it. Then I realized that I’d forgotten to measure the pulp! I probably had a cup and a half in there, but it still tasted good and was less sweet, Tightly wrapped, it froze just fine. Second Cake: Boiled a large Valencia orange (which happened to yield exactly one cup) while I prepped the almonds and for the heck of it minced up some orange zest I had in the freezer. Processed the pulp, set it aside, then did the eggs — but this time I left them going, gradually adding the sugar through the processor tube and leaving it to run for a minute or so. Got out the baking powder and remembered this cookie recipe that had you mixing it with a teaspoon of warm water before adding to the batter. Why not, right? So I did the same, stirring the tiny mixture into the orange pulp whereupon it immediately began to fizz (not as much as baking soda would, but still, yikes!) Quickly but gently folded in the fluffy, slightly thickened egg mix, then folded in the almonds just until blended through. Glad I had my pan ready… and how luxurious the batter looked pouring in! Baked it as directed and resisted opening the oven until checking for doneness, closing it gently when I did. The cake turned out really beautiful, the taste and texture outstanding! We kept it under a cake cover in a cool room for a few days, still moist and yummy. Which of the details made the difference? I agree with a previous poster that it doesn’t need frosting. However, the flavored whipped cream that you and others have suggested sounds very inviting. Next time: tangerines for sure!
Not sure if you saw, but I posted about this. Didn’t turn out so well, but I think it was me and not the recipe.
I just saw this and went to your page to check. The problem was that when I say “almond meal or flour” that meant almond meal or almond flour, not regular flour. I just updated the recipe to be extra clear. I do hope you try it again, a lot of stores are carrying almond flour these days, and you did everything perfectly except for the flour part!
Recommend against buttering pan – burned for me. Using light spray such as Pam or other works better. Also, I added 1 cap each of vanila and orange flower water. Delish!
My daughters have just sent out invitations for an afternoon tea party, we will have two guests who are gluten intolerant, this will be perfect. Thanyou