Hello, this week is a double celebration! Not only has my baking challenge reached a quarter of the way through, but my friends welcomed their baby daughter into the world on Friday. It's fabulous news & I promised that I would make this cake to celebrate, so this one is for the Cooper family, congratulations! Although with a new baby in the house, you're probably thinking baking will be the last thing on Mum's mind, but don't worry, I have packaged some of my cake up & it's on it's way up the country!I really wasn't sure what a Clementine Cake involved, so for the first time I've sought help from a celebrity chef. This recipe comes from the domestic goddess herself, Nigella. It's such a delicious cake, but really simple to make. The only thing is you need to set aside a couple of hours to make it as the clementines have to be cooked thoroughly before they are used in the recipe.
375g clementines (about 6-7 fruits)
250g ground almonds
6 eggs
225g sugar
Heaped teaspoon baking powder
1. Place the clementines in a large pan of cold water, bring up to the boil & simmer gently for 2 hours. Drain & leave to cool, then cut them in half & remove any pips. Put the fruit, skins, pith & all into a food processor. Blitz briefly until you get a soft pulp. If you haven't got a food processor you can mash them by hand they are so mushy.
2. Add all the other ingredients to the food processor & blitz until combined. If mixing by hand, beat the eggs together with the sugar & mix into the clementine pulp, then mix in the ground almonds & finally the baking powder.
3. Butter a loose bottom cake tin & tip in the mixture. Bake in the oven at 190c (turn down to 170c if using a fan oven) for about an hour. I usually place a loose bottom tin on a baking tray just in case you get any overspill! The top will brown quite quickly, so it's recommended to place a piece of baking parchment over the top for the last 20 minutes.
4. Leave to cool completely in the tin, before turning out.
I think this is possibly one of the most delicious cake I've made so far. I don't think I've made a flour less cake before & I must admit I wasn't sure, but the ground almonds combined with the sweet clementines is amazing! I really hope you get to try this one out? If anyone has any other requests, I'll be happy to try them out :-) Next week will be the final in the series of cocktail cakes & hopefully will give you a taste of summer...ta ta, Rebecca
After being given a very generous slice of this cake, it is definitely one of my favourites to date! Well worth the time it took to cook the clementines.
ReplyDeleteHi Rebecca
ReplyDeleteI have just discovered your blog via 'My dish' - it's great. Have you seen the film Julie and Julia? Maybe you'll be made into a film one day! I discovered Nigella's clementine cake a couple of years ago and it is one of my favourites too. Have you tried a polenta cake? I finally got around to it about 18 months ago as I always loved it when out but had never made one. I am now hooked! Easy and delicious! Try my recipe on My Dish - 'Love Baking'.
Keep up the good work! X