Want to know the secret to my whole orange flourless cake without boiling (or peeling)?
It's the easiest cake recipe to make in your blender or food processor that's gluten-free and sugar-free too.
This is the perfect flourless orange cake that is sugar-free, gluten-free, low-carb, and all made in the food processor.
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Whole orange cake (no boiling)
This easy flourless cake recipe uses a whole orange skin and all, so only 1 orange is required to get that delicate orange taste.
There is no boiled oranges, no butter, no oil, no mixing, and even no whipping.
The entire recipe is made in the food processor and is ready in under 30 minutes.
Ingredients
This orange cake recipe contains no wheat flour, instead, it uses ground almonds/almond meal, or almond flour.
The delicious cake is also sugar-free, gluten-free, and can be made dairy-free if you choose to make the icing/frosting just with the sugar-free icing mix, coconut cream, and some orange zest.
All quantities, ingredients, and instructions are in the recipe card below.
- 1 orange - quartered
- eggs - medium
- almond meal - ground almonds or almond flour
- baking powder
- sweetener - choose your favourite sugar substitue
- vanilla extract
- salt
Sugar Free Frosting / Icing
- natural yoghurt - unsweetened
- cream cheese - softened
- powdered sweetener - choose your favourite powdered sugar replacement
- orange zest
Top Tip: It's best to use powdered sweetener which is incredibly fine and won't leave the icing/frosting with a gritty texture.
Instructions
This is the perfect flourless orange cake recipe that requires no peeling or chopping the whole orange into tiny pieces. You don't even need to boil the orange to extract the delicious orange flavor from the orange rind.
Step 1: Make the cake batter.
Cut the orange into 4 quarters, remove any pips. Place the orange quarters in the large bowl of your food processor and blitz with the blade until almost pureed. Add all the ingredients and pulse until smooth.
Puree the orange quarters until all the orange rind has been finely chopped. Some people prefer to see thin slices of orange skin, others like it to be smooth.
Add all the remaining ingredients for the orange cake into the mixing bowl of the food processor and pulse until combined and smooth.
Step 2: Bake the orange cakes.
Pour the cake batter into a prepared pan. You can use one large cake pan, a springform pan, or two small cake tins. Prepare the cake tins by greasing them with butter or oil and lining them with baking parchment paper.
Bake in the middle rack of your oven at 180C/350F for 20 minutes, or until the center of the cake is cooked. Cooking times will vary depending on the size of the cake tins used.
Allow the baked cakes to cool in their cake tins for 10-20 minutes, then carefully run a butter knife around the edges and flip onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
Serving
After baking (and cooling) the orange cake recipe into 2 sponge tins and sandwich them together with sugar-free frosting/icing made with yogurt and cream cheese.
Easy cream cheese sugar-free frosting, 6 ways.
Place the first layer on a serving plate and add your frosting filling. Place the next layer of cake on top. Finish by adding some frosting on top and garnish with a slice of orange.
Substitutions
Sweetener - use your favorite granulated sweetener for the cake batter and powdered sweetener for the frosting. If you can't buy powdered sweetener, then you can make your own by placing the granules not your coffee grinder or food processor and grinding to a fine powder.
Almond meal - you can use ground almonds, almond flour, or fine almond flour. You cannot substitute almond flour for coconut flour because these low-carb flours behave completely differently.
Lemons - you can swap the whole orange for a small-medium fresh whole lemon to make a lemon flourless cake. Adjust the sweetener as you may require more to make sure there is no butter taste.
Orange extract - the vanilla extract in the orange cake recipe adds a delicious flavor but you can use orange extract instead in your orange sponge cake.
How to reduce the carbs
A slice of this low-carb whole orange cake is 4.6g net carbs for a double layer and only 2.3g per slice if using a single layer, including the icing/frosting.
This makes a very large double-layer celebration cake. If you want to cut down even further on carbs, you can just treat both layers as 2 separate cakes or bake the cake batter in one large cake pan.
Cover each layer with icing/frosting, and now you have 2 cakes rather than a double layer cake.
You can also use the cake mixture to bake orange mini cupcakes or a square sponge, then iced and sliced. A quick search shows that most orange cakes have 40g carbs or more, even without the frosting.
Recipe FAQ
Using an entire orange reduces how many fresh oranges and how much orange juice is needed for the orange and almond cake. Most orange cakes require a large number of boiled oranges and orange juice to give it the delicious orange flavor, but orange juice is high in natural sugars.
Yes, instead of making sugar-free frosting, just serve any keto cake with whipped cream or a quick dusting or powdered sweetener (sugar-free icing sugar).
Yes, the cake is dairy-free so all you need to do is to omit the cream cheese frosting. Serve with orange syrup, orange glaze, candied orange peel (for those who are not keto), or thin orange slices.
There are only 197 calories in this double-layer cake, including the cream cheese frosting.
Some whole oranges are bitter because of the white pith. Because you use an entire orange, you may want to remove any excess white parts. Always taste your cake batter before baking and add more sweetener if required.
Yes, you can roughly chop your fresh orange or use a small stick blender with a blade attachment. Place all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and combine until smooth.
Your orange almond cake is incredibly moist because of the fresh oranges, the orange juice, and all the eggs. You can see from the images above that the cake batter can be poured from the mixing bowl. If you think your batter is too wet, however, add 1-2 tablespoons of almond flour at a time until you reach the right cake batter consistency.
Store your orange cake in an airtight container lined with parchment paper for up to 3 days in a cool place, or if the weather is hot and humid, store in the fridge. Orange cake can be frozen in an airtight container for up to 3 months.
More sugar-free cake recipes
- Sugar-free chocolate cream cheese frosting
- Flourless chocolate fudge cake (sugar-free)
- Sugar-free low-carb lemon cupcakes
Baking 101 (tips & charts)
📖 Recipe
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Whole Orange Flourless Cake Recipe
Recipe Video
Calculate ingredients
Ingredients
Almond and Orange Flourless Cake
- 1 orange quartered
- 6 eggs - medium
- 250 g (2 ½ cups) almond meal/flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 4 tablespoon granulated sweetener of choice or more, to your taste
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Sugar Free Icing
- 125 ml (½ cup) natural unsweetened yoghurt unsweetened
- 115 g (4 oz) cream cheese softened
- 50 g (1.8 oz) powdered sweetener
- 2 tablespoon orange zest
Equipment
Instructions
Almond and Orange Flourless Cake
- Place the orange quarters (make sure to remove the seeds) in the food processor and using the blade attachment, blitz until almost pureed. It is nice to see small pieces of orange peel in the final baking mix.
- Add all the other ingredients. Pulse until smooth.
- Pour into 2 greased sponge tins that have been lined with baking parchment paper.
- Bake at 180C/350F for 20-25 minutes. Test the centre with a clean fork or skewer to ensure it is cooked thoroughly.
Sugar Free Icing
- Mix the softened cream cheese with the natural yoghurt with a fork until smooth.
- Add the orange zest and powdered sweetener.
- When the cakes are completely cold, place the first layer on the serving plate and ice with the icing mix. Place the other cake layer on top and sprinkle with the sugar free icing mix and tiny pieces of orange zest and orange slices.
Notes
5-INGREDIENTS COOKBOOK
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YOUR HOLIDAY PANTRY & GIFT GUIDES
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Approximate nutrition information is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. For the most accurate nutritional data, use the actual ingredients and brands you used in your preferred nutrition calculator.
Sonia
This is not vegetarian. 80% of vegetarians do not eat eggs. Its practically an egg- cake.
Kathy
I make this regularly, it never disappoints. So easy but so yum.
I also freeze some portions of the cake and use it to make low carb/keto trifle with sugar free jelly, a few berries, and keto custard. Yum!!!
Libby Jenkinson
What an absolutely genius idea to save portions of the cake and use it in a keto trifle.
Elsa
This is my very first super successful keto bake. Usually, it falls apart and it is an epic failure (still tasty lol). But this came out perfect, it's soft, delicious and NOT dry. I made it as a full cake but maybe next time I will try it as muffins. The frosting was too little to cover the full cake properly (I may have used too little of the ingredients based on what I had already).
Make this! You won't regret it.
Libby Jenkinson
Hi Elsa, I'm so glad you love this whole orange cake recipe. It's so easy, no one believes me that a whole orange is the genus kitchen hack everyone needs to do. Fewer oranges, fewer carbs, more taste. I have made it as muffins before, and it is delicious too. Add some poppy seeds to make orange poppyseed muffins. Place half the mixture into your muffin tray, add a cube of cream cheese in the center then place more cake batter on top. Ab-so-lute-ely delicious when you bite into it.
Suzanne
This cake was so fresh and yummy! I used my vitamix, but I will use my food processor next time. I will also double the whipped cream. Thank you for this recipe! I served it to guests yesterday and they thought it was delicous 🙂
Suzanne
I just realized that I used 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream instead of the yogurt, ha! Well it was delicous. I'll try making the frosting with yogurt and see how that tastes to me. I did buy some plain full fat yogurt and totally blanked and used the cream instead. Distracted...
Tee Born
Made this cake and it was delicious. I like that you can just use a fresh orange. So easy. Makes Keto fun having a nice dessert. My family enjoyed it too.
AnneB
I've made this in my Vitamix & the family never could tell it was sugar free! (Not to mention a whole orange!) I made my own SF buttercream frosting. Amazing!! Need to make again - soon!!
Kay
Excellent! Texture is like regular cake and so easy to make
Jo
This is my go-to recipe, at home and work. It never fails to please. I've made the cupcakes and frozen most so I don't eat them all in one go. I've frozen the icing separately, it comes out a little watery but I just mix it up again.
Libby www.ditchthecarbs.com
Let's figure out what went wrong. Did you taste the almond and orange cake before baking? Did you adjust the sweetener to your taste? All recipes state a general level of sweetness and notes "or more to your taste" as everyone has a different sweet tooth than another.
Roz
I just made this today and it’s really nice.
I only had extra large eggs so only used 4 but the cake was a little dense. Not sure if it’s meant to be? Or should I use 5 eggs next time?
Libby www.ditchthecarbs.com
Hey there Roz, I'm chuffed you loved the orange flourless cake and that it still worked with 4 eggs instead of 5. Yes it is quite a dense cake, and one fewer egg probably added to that, but that's OK.
Wendy
This was delicious, my grandkids loved it too!!
Ocarina
I make half recipe and put in the cupcake paper. Turn out ok, smell amazing. But i just put 1 tbs sugar, so not sweet at all and a little bit bitter, maybe because the skin and i put to little sugar
Libby www.ditchthecarbs.com
You definitely need sweetener for this one. The lemon skin/rind is what gives these low-carb cupcakes their lemon punch of flavour but without lots of lemon juice and additional natural sugars. If after you baked them, you wish you had added more western, serve with sweetened (sugar-free) whipped cream. Yummo.
Nicola Bertram
Made this today and turned out fab, however I found my frosting too runny. Could you advise how to make the frosting firmer please. Mine turned out more like a thick pouring cream than an icing. Thank you.
Libby www.ditchthecarbs.com
The frosting is not as thick as regular frosting, so yes, it can also be used as a side serve. To make it thicker, avoid the spreadable cream cheese, and only use full-fat cream cheese block.
Marsha
I made this in a 9x13 pan. It wasn't very fluffy but still tasted good. I baked for 30 minutes per the suggested instructions and it was perfect. As I don't have sponge/round baking tins I think I could easily make this size again and cut in half and have a square double layer cake. I'll try it in a bit smaller pan too just to have a slightly higher cake
I am experimenting w artificial sweeteners and tried monk fruit this time. I only used half what's called for and feel it was sweet enough. I didn't frost it as I wanted to get the real taste of the cake first. Took it to a neighbors for dinner and she agreed w another review in that it needed more salt. I'm not a fan of salt so I'm thinking of adding orange or almond extract next time. Also maybe using a larger orange
I'd like to try this in smaller mini loaf pans (like the mini cheese loaves) but am wondering how long to cook them for. I'm going to freeze whats left as it's just me. So the mini size would be ideal
Thanks for another great recipe.
Tonya Cassell
I made this recipe using Stevia....3 tablespoons
I used a large naval orange, after processing I measured and had one cup 8 ounces juice and pulp.
I put all dry ingredients together.
Beat the eggs until light colored, added pulp, vanilla and 1 tsp Almond extract, then added dry ingredients and stirred until mixed.
For me this yielded 5 and 1/2 dozen mini cupcakes.
I thhen made a glaze of 1 tablespoon Stevia, 2 tablespoons corn starch, 1 cup orange juice with pulp, and 1_tablespoon zest. I brought this mixture to a boil, and then removed from heat. Cooled slightly, then spread on mini cupcakes
Gilly
So how many carbs per mini cup cake ? these sound delicious
Karla
Can I sustitute anything for the almond flour besides coconut flour? My daughter has a severe nut allergy and is also allergic to coconut. Thanks!
Libby www.ditchthecarbs.com
I'm afraid not in this recipe as it is entirely based on almond flour. I understand so many readers here have a nut allergy so I now have a coconut flour category (click here to see them) where the recipes are either made WITH coconut flour or there are instructions in the recipe to use coconut flour INSTEAD of almond flour.
johanna d campbell
You can use sunflower seed flour, just know it mau have a greenish hue.
Laura
I'm thinking of making this cake without the icing (don't have all the ingredients on hand) and adding fresh cranberries to the batter. Without the icing and the natural sourness of the cranberries do you recommend adding more sweetener to the batter? If so, how much?
Libby www.ditchthecarbs.com
I think you may have this recipe confused with another. There are no cranberries in this recipe only almond flour, oranges and eggs etc.
Melissa Day
Adding cranberries! That's brilliant!
Morna
I've made this in a square pan and served it with orange slices and cream as a dessert
Jennifer
Hi can I use something not citrus and also will coconut flour work?also can I use heavy cream or table cream instead of the liquid needed from the orange? I am only allowed to have cottage cheese , heavy cream, or table cream also no fruit except for pears or blueberries.
Libby www.ditchthecarbs.com
I'm afraid that would be an entirely new recipe with no fruit and using another flour. There are too many variations to this recipe. I wonder if my 1-minute vanilla mug cakes would suit you? It uses coconut flour, has berries (but can easily be substituted for blueberries).
Cat
The 7.9g carbs per slice - does that include or exclude fibre? Thanks x
Libby www.ditchthecarbs.com
All my nutrition panels show total carbs (so it includes the fibre). So just deduct the fibre from the carbs and it will give you the next carb value.
Deb
How many slices, or servings, are in the 2-layer cake? The nutrition panel nor the recipe says, unless I missed it. Thank you.
Libby www.ditchthecarbs.com
The recipe states make 12 servings. This is 12 slices of the double-layer cake. Hope that helps.
Cheri
12 slices? We only managed to get 6😳
Marina Jensen
This is delicious. Thank you!
Diane
I’m sure you will think I’m an idiot, but, what is a sponge pan? I’m in Texas and never heard of that. Might know it as something else. How about a 9 inch cake pan?
Libby www.ditchthecarbs.com
Apologies, I am still learning all the different ways around the world we refer to baking ingredients and gadgets. I refer to a sponge tin as the small cake tins you use to make a layered cake. So not a deep dish cake pan. I found this one on Amazon to show you what I mean.
Mary Frances
So it’s an 8” cake pan with removable bottom and it looks like we need two ... does it need the removable bottom to get the cake out? Thanks.
Libby www.ditchthecarbs.com
A removable bottom does make it easier, but I have made this in my two sandwich/cake/layer tins lined with baking parchment and they were super easy to remove the cakes from the tins.
Sheryl Tomlinson
I only have large eggs, not medium ones. How many eggs would I use for this?
Libby Jenkinson
Hi Sheryl, great question. These are the "average" sizes of eggs in different countries. In New Zealand our medium eggs are 44g, UK and European medium eggs are 53g, US medium eggs are 49g. So you would only need to adjust how many eggs a recipe uses if there was a large number of eggs in a recipe. Otherwise, most eggs range between 5-10g from each average value so on any given day (and any given tray of eggs) the weight will vary naturally.
Sasha
I would like to make with lemons
Melissa A Day
Did you? How did it come out? Lemon sounds heavenly.
Tracie
This is in my oven now and I am excited to try it! I only had jumbo eggs from our chickens so i used those. I used more sweetener and added some essential oils as one person recommended. The consistency of the batter was like a regular cake mix and the smell was divine. I can’t waot to see how it turns out and tastes.
Libby www.ditchthecarbs.com
Tracie this is brilliant! I love the idea of adding some essential oils to the mix - that will certainly pack a flavoursome punch. Enjoy 🙂
Donna Holden
WHat kind of essential oils did you use?
Sandie
So many recipes nowadays use good orocessors. I don't have one and frankly, can't afford one. What can be used instead to puree? Thank yiu!
Libby www.ditchthecarbs.com
Do you have a blender? Anything that might chop and dice the orange into very small pieces? Then you could add the finely chopped orange to a traditional mixing bowl and add all the other ingredients and mix gently together. Even a stick blender could process the orange into a fine puree.
Erica
I'd like to recommend the food processor I bought on Amazon for only $20! It's a Hamilton Beach and works great. No, it's not a Cuisinart, but it gets the job done and is affordable.
turgut
Can you make this with fewer eggs?
6 eggs seems a lot..
Libby www.ditchthecarbs.com
You could try, but they make sure the cake is light, fluffy and rises well. If you are successful, please come back and let me know how many you used.
Erica
It isn't too many eggs. I have another cream cheese pound cake recipe that uses 8 eggs and it's divine! Can't wait to make this.
Sarah Oswald
What is natural yoghurt.
Libby www.ditchthecarbs.com
Natural unsweetened yoghurt is simply milk and cultures. It just unprocessed and low in carbs, low in sugars and perfect for healthy gut flora.
Rhonda
Great recipe, I added about 80g of butter and a small teaspoon of cinnamon....delicious.
Roberta
Your recipies are always so inspiring... easy to make, healthy, nouishing... and the final result done following your instructions is almost always great (depending also by the quality of ingredients and of the cooker of course 😉 ). In this case, I have had to substitute orange with lemon (I hadn't oranges and I usually don't buy them, my mother does just in winter), and I hve obtained a lower carb but equally yummy cake. I've also added 2 drops of lemon essential oil and the cake had an irresistible aroma... I'll do it again! Thank you Libby, and please: do not change your way to approach the healthy side of cooking with low carb options easy to make, and made with love from real food as you have done until now: it's a game changer for a lot of people and your contributen to share the low carb way of lifebetween common people is so huge... Thank you, thank you, thank you! 🙂
Libby www.ditchthecarbs.com
Oh Roberta, you don't know how happy your comment makes me. I truly truly want to show everyone that low-carb food should be simple, easy, healthy and delicious. The longer I am low-carb the simpler the food I love. We don't need all these complicated "products" out there and fancy supplements and replacements. Whole real food wins every single time. Thank you so much for taking the time to leave your wonderful heartfelt comment today. Have the most wonderful week 🙂 x
sallyanne swain
how many carbs in this recipe please
Karen steele
I made this cake and it came out amazing!!! Thank you so much
Libby www.ditchthecarbs.com
Aw thank you. That is so kind.
Renata Ajtai
I just made it too! Omg! I never thought it will be this delicious! I have to be careful even if this is low carb not to eat the whole cake! ???
Olga
I just made this cake, its wonderfull! I used some coconut for a part of the almond flower and 2 mandarins and 1 lemon instead of orange. Worked out great. Thanks for this recipe.