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Vegan Orange Upside Down Cake
This beautiful vegan orange upside down cake is guaranteed to brighten up a gloomy winter’s day. The cake’s red, orange and yellow hues remind us of a glorious sunset settling over the horizon. Beneath the artwork is a fluffy and moist cake with a pleasing hint of citrus.
General
- Creates: 10-12 slices of cake
- Dietary: V | VG | can be made gluten-free | NF
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Total Time: 60 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 navel oranges, halved and thinly sliced*
- 1 blood oranges, halved and thinly sliced
- 300g all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 200g caster sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 130mL extra virgin olive oil
- 200mL soy milk^
- 150mL orange juice, freshly squeezed from the above oranges
Directions
- Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a springform cake pan’ with oil.
- Cover the bottom of the cake tin with orange slices. Alternate the navel and blood oranges to make it colourful. It’s up to you whether you want the oranges to overlap and leave no gaps or if you want to have them more spaced out. The artwork is yours! You can also cut the oranges in half or remove the orange peel.
- Sift flour into a large mixing bowl. Add in baking powder and sugar.
- In another bowl, whisk together the oil, milk, orange juice and vanilla.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix until combined.
- Transfer the cake batter onto the cake tin on top of the orange slices.
- Bake at 180°C for 45-50 minutes or until a clean toothpick comes out in the middle. Remove from oven and let it cool. Carefully open up the spring and invert the cake.
Happy eating!
Notes
*I recommend using a mandolin slicer if you have one.
^Substitute with any plant-based milk
‘I used a 9-inch cake pan which was a good size to fit 9 slices of orange and play around with the upside down cake design. Even though the cake itself is on the flatter side, I found it to be more aesthetically pleasing. You can use a smaller cake pan to produce a higher cake but there will be a smaller area for the orange slices.
Additional notes:
- To peel or not to peel: it’s entirely up to you whether you peel the orange skin or not. I personally like the look of the upside down cake with the peels so I left them on. But do note that leaving the skin on does make the cake slightly bitter, something that doesn’t bother me too much. However, you could slightly increase the sugar in the cake to counteract it.
- How to make it gluten-free: use gluten-free flour instead of all-purpose with a 1:1 ratio. Make sure to check if the gluten-free flour has added xanthan gum, if not add your own.
How to Make it Whole Foods
At Embody Nourish, we promote a plant-based diet that comprise mainly of whole foods. This means no oil (even ‘healthy’ oils such as coconut or olive oil), refined or processed foods. However we understand that this ideal is not yet mainstream so we strive to accomodate everyone while encouraging small changes.
As you can tell, this recipe is on the sweeter side and as much as we love our whole foods, we adore desserts too! Even though we promote a whole foods plant-based diet, there is nothing wrong with indulgences within a balanced lifestyle. Foods like this increase our quality of life and it’s good for our mental health to be able to enjoy these recipes guilt-free. Plus, we often share them with our friends and family… that’s what life is about!
In baking, it’s harder to make changes to whole foods but here are some things you could try (although I can’t guarantee the outcome):
- Reduce the sugar content in the cake slightly
- Use whole wheat flour when possible over white refined flour
- Use freshly squeezed orange juice instead of store-bought ones which will have extra sugar added
