How to live with lupus

With the Christmas holidays just round the corner, one has to fight off every temptation to simply indulge in all the wonderful buttery smell of baking. Many times I have to resist baked offerings because of the butter and wheat contents found in the cakes and tarts. With so many of us watching our cholesterol counts, some even at one point ruthlessly wrote off cakes from their diet.

Besides wheat often causes bloating and gas in the stomach and if you have to find release, holding back could result in a ’snowball effect’.

But now I have found a simply yummy perfect indulgence no butter and no flour cake! Even non-cake lovers would love it. It is moist with extra virgin olive oil, scent with the fragrant of oranges and nutty with almond.

Almond & Orange Olive Oil Cake

Ingredients:
3 whole eggs
3 egg whites
1 cup sugar
2 oranges (grated peel)
250g almond meal
1 tsp baking powder (heap)
½ cup orange juice
¾ cup extra virgin olive oil
Pinch of salt

Method:
1) Heat oven to 190 deg C. Butter and line a 21cm baking tray using greaseproof paper.
2) Place egg whites into one bowl and beat till the whites stiffen. Leave aside
3) Place the whole eggs into another bowl, add the sugar and beat till mixture thickens.
4) Grate the orange peel directly into the bowl; add almond meal, baking powder, salt, orange juice and then the olive oil.
5) Fold in the beaten egg whites into the mixture.
6) Finally pour mixture into the baking tray and bake for half an hour.
7) Test with a stick or skewer in the middle of the cake. If it comes out clean, the cake is done. If not, you may have to cover the cake with an aluminum foil or greaseproof paper to prevent the top of the cake from burning.
When the cake is done, leave to cool on a rack. You will find it easy to remove from the tray once the cake is cold.
9) Dust some icing sugar on top of cake and garnish with some fresh oranges.

Note: You can use canola oil if you are not used to the smell of olive oil or use polyunsaturated oils such as corn, sunflower and soybean