So, on to the next great seasonal flavor – cranberries! Naturally low in carbs (about 8g net carbs per 100g), they work well in all sorts of sweet and savoury recipes.
Today we are going to team cranberries with ground almonds and oranges, for a moist and rich cake with nut streusel topping. These seasonal flavours play really well together, and the carbs add up to about 5g net per serving.
Did you mention oranges? Oranges are not low-carb!
True – they are not. However, we are only going to be using a small amount – zest of one orange, which adds zero carbs, plus 2 tbsp (roughly 1oz / 30ml) freshly squeezed juice (yield from about 1/4 medium orange), which adds 3g net carbs to the recipe.
This means it will only amount to less than 0.5g net carbs per serving, which I think is acceptable, considering its important role in enhancing the flavor. And you can always feed the rest of the orange to a non-low-carbing friend!
If you feel zero-tolerance about oranges, I suppose you could substitute orange juice for some orange flavor extract, but I would recommend the natural option, even if it does come with a small bit of carbs.
What exactly is streusel?
Streusel is a crumbly topping sometimes added to breads and cakes. Chopped nuts with a bit of sweetener work really well in this capacity, so low-carb cake recipes often come with nut streusel.
Shall I use fresh or frozen cranberries?
Either would be fine, but I guess frozen option is easier to get hold of. Defrost them before cooking – they defrost really fast. Chop them up roughly and add a tablespoon of sweetener to create a cake-ready cranberries mix.
Print Low-carb cranberry orange almond cakeTotal Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
8 servings
Ingredients
- 3 cups (270g / 9oz) almond flour
- 1/2 cup and 1 tbsp Truvia or equivalent sweetener
- 1/2 cup (120ml / 4oz) almond milk (soya, coconut or dairy milk would also work)
- 60g (2oz) unsalted butter, melted
- 4 eggs
- ground zest of 1 orange
- 2 tbsp (30ml / 1oz) freshly squeezed orange juice
- 150g (5oz) cranberries, chopped roughly
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 2 tbsp sugar-free vanilla extract
- 1 small pinch of salt
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- For struesel topping
- 1 cup (90g / 3oz) mixed nuts (pecans, hazelnuts, walnuts, macadamia would all work well)
- 1 tbsp Truvia or equivalent sweetener
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 190C/375F/Gas Mark 5
- Combine dry ingredients - almond flour, 1/2 cup of Truvia, baking powder, salt and cinnamon - and mix well
- Beat the eggs lightly with milk, melted butter, vanilla extract and orange juice
- Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix well
- Chop cranberries roughly and mix with 1 tbsp of Truvia
- Fold cranberries and grated orange zest into the mixture
- Transfer mixture into a greased 9-inch springform cake pan
- Chop up mixed nuts and add 1 tbsp of Truvia
- Lay out the nuts on top of the cake as a top layer
- Bake at 190C/375F/Gas Mark 5 for about 1 hour, or until golden and firm to touch
Assuming 8 slices are made from the amounts listed above, per 1 slice: 380 cal, 4g net carbs, 35g fat, 13g protein
Schema/Recipe SEO Data Markup by ZipList Recipe Plugin2.2http://low-carb-support.com/low-carb-cranberry-almond-cake/Recipe by Margarita White (@Carbophobic), for low-carb-support.com
