To prepare our delicious orange cake, the ingredients should be at room temperature, including the eggs (except for the ingredients for the coconut cream).

Prepare all the ingredients in front of us.

In a bowl, sift all the dry ingredients (rice flour, cornstarch, potato starch, baking powder), mix with a steel whisk to combine them, and set aside temporarily.

Line a 9-inch springform pan (or a 8-inch pan with 4-inch high sides) with parchment paper.

Grate the peel of two oranges very finely (set aside a little to use in the coconut cream), extract the quantity needed and set aside.

In another large bowl, crack the eggs, add the sugar, and mix in the grated orange peel.

Manually mix the eggs and sugar for about 2 minutes with the steel whisk. You will get a smooth and liquid mixture. It’s important that the sugar is dissolved.

Now add, one at a time, the liquid ingredients, namely the strained orange juice and the vegetable oil, incorporating them gently and always mixing by hand with the steel whisk.

Now preheat the oven to 340°F.

Add the fine salt and the dry ingredients, which we will pour into the mixture in three batches (not all at once) to better incorporate them and avoid lumps, using the steel whisk.

Ensure all powders have been incorporated into the batter, meaning that no unmixed flour remains at the bottom of the bowl. The batter should be very creamy.

Gently pour the cake into the pan, tap gently on the table to ensure the batter settles and distributes evenly, and place in the static oven, at medium height, for about 55/60 minutes. The cake should bake at a not excessively high temperature and gradually, to prevent the batter from collapsing in the center or cooking on the outside while remaining raw inside.

Check often, as every oven has its own timing and temperatures. When the cake is cooked (a sign that helps us understand if a cake is ready is to observe if it has detached from the edges of the pan), after testing with a wooden or steel skewer (which should come out completely dry), turn off the oven and remove it immediately, to prevent residual heat from drying it excessively, and let it cool for at least 2 hours before gently removing it from the pan, as it might break. After two hours, transfer the cake to the fridge in a cake holder.

While the cake cools and sets, let’s prepare the coconut cream.

Pour the cold cream from the refrigerator into the bowl and whip it for a minute at maximum speed with electric beaters. At this point, add the powdered sugar, cream cheese, grated coconut, and a bit more grated orange zest, and a teaspoon of orange liqueur or other, if you like.

Whip for another minute or until you get a fluffy, airy, and well-combined mixture. Do not overwhip as you risk ending up with homemade butter instead of whipped cream.

Fill a piping bag with coconut cream, cut the tip with a straight cut no larger than one inch (as shown in the photo below).

Take the cake out of the fridge, place it on a cutting board. Cut it in half and fill with the cream, starting from the center.

Cover with the other half of the cake and fill with cream also the outer edges of the cake, all around.

With the remaining cream, create decorations on the cake as you like.

Now we have to make the last delicious step. Chop the chocolate with a knife not too coarsely (you can also use chocolate chips) and apply it all around the outer edges of the cake, using your hands (I recommend using gloves in this case).

Place the filled orange cake in the cake holder in the fridge and let it rest for a few hours, so it absorbs the moisture from the cream and becomes more flavorful.

Extra tip. I suggest preparing it the day before, as filled cakes generally need to rest and develop flavor.

Gluten-free cakes made, as in this case, with natural flours and without adding thickeners (such as xanthan, for example), butter, and milk, tend to be rather crumbly. I recommend placing the cake in the fridge after it has cooled, as this helps stabilize it better.