Clementine cake
This clementine cake is lovely and juicy, with a nice sweet chewiness to the crust. And look at that crumb:
When I took the next photo I accidentally left the flash on - but it does show off some of the bright orange colouring in the cake:
It's an easy cake to make. Cos of the juiciness it doesn't keep for that long... but that's no problem. If you have a pressure-cooker it really speeds up the bit where you cook the clementines (or tangerines, or whatever).
Ingredients:
- 4-5 clementines (350--375g)
- 6 eggs
- 225 g sugar
- 225 g ground almonds
- 25 g flaked almonds
- 3 or 4 cloves
- 1 heaped tsp baking powder
Put the clementines (WHOLE AND UNPEELED, but without any stalky bits) into the pressure cooker, or a big pan with a lid. Add cold water to cover. If it's a pressure cooker, put the lid on, bring it up to pressure, and cook for 15-20 mins. If it's a normal pan, simmer gently (covered) for 2 hours.
Then turn off the heat, release the pressure, and let the clems and the water cool down. You have to let them cool before the next step, so the clementines don't scramble the eggs! Here's a picture of our clems cooling on the back step.
Put the clems into a food processor and blend them up. (It's handy to keep some of their cooking water in case the mixture needs a bit more liquid, but in my experience it's generally not needed.)
Crush the cloves in a pestle and mortar. Add the flaked almonds and crush them too. No need to crush the almonds too fine - the point of the flaked almonds is to give an occasional bit of crunch to the cake.
In a mixing bowl, whisk the eggs, then mix in the clementines. Then add everything else, and mix it up.
Pour into a 21cm springform tin (greased, and with baking paper in the bottom) and bake at 180 degrees (gas mark 4 or 5) for about an hour. Cover the cake loosely with greaseproof paper or a tray, for the last 20 minutes or so.
Take out of the oven and let it sit in the tin for 10--20 minutes or so, before turning it out onto a wire rack to cool properly.
Syndicated 2013-03-29 16:18:11 (Updated 2013-04-03 09:07:24) from Dan Stowell