Clementine Cake

So, Clementine Cake.  An interesting recipe which is surpirisingly good.  Normally when I use a recipe that I am unsure of I end up regretting it when it comes out of the oven.  Examples of this are such as when I made buttermilk pudding cake, and the pudding seemed like curdled sludge.  It seemed like a good recipe in theory, but I was worried it would be curdled from the beginning.  I should have gone with my first impression.

Anyways, I found this recipe on the Smitten Kitchen blog website and was struck from the beginning with its strangeness and also with its ease.  Despite having only five ingredients the eggs, of which there are six, do not have to be whipped at all, the almonds need to merely be processed, and everything can be done in one bowl.  Actually, I think everything could be thrown into the food processes after the almonds are done alone and it would be fine.



This is an odd recipe mostly because the clementines are boiled for 2 straight hours!  You will have to keep adding water as otherwise the pan dries up.  The boiling gets rid of the bitterness in the peels so the cake isn't bitter at all, despite being made from whole processed clementines.  The texture to this cake is wonderful after being cooked for 30 minutes.  It is creamy despite having little pieces of nuts and incredibly moist the second day.  Just as well, it stands up on its own and is quite firm.  It seems like it would be a very good tea cake though I haven't actually had it with tea.  And, as Deb from Smitten Kitchen mentioned, it has no butter or flour, so its quite a bit healthier than many cakes.  The recipe is below:

Clementine Cake
Adapted From Smitten Kitchen Adapted from Nigella Lawson

4 to 5 clementines (about 375grams/slightly less than 1 pound total weight) (I actually used 7 clementines because mine were quite small)
6 eggs
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (225 grams) sugar
2 1/3 cups (250 grams) ground almonds (I used 2/3 cup walnuts too because I ran out of almonds)
1 heaping teaspoon baking powder
Optional: Powdered sugar for dusting, or for making a glaze

Put the clementines in a pot with cold water to cover, bring to the boil, and cook for 2 hours. Drain and, when cool, cut each clementine in half and remove the seeds. Then finely chop the skins, pith, and fruit in the processor (or by hand, of course).
Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C).
Butter and line an 8-inch (21 centimeter) springform pan with parchment paper. (I used a 9-inch pan and it worked fine)
Beat the eggs. Add the sugar, almonds, and baking powder. Mix well, adding the chopped clementines.
Pour the cake mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes, when a skewer will come out clean; you might have to cover the cake with foil after about 20 minutes to stop the top from over-browning.
Remove from the oven and leave to cool, in the pan on a rack. When the cake is cold, you can take it out of the pan and dust it with powdered sugar. This cake really tasted better the second day, which is I guess what Nigella also says.  The flavors meld better this way.
Variations: Nigella says she’s also made this with an equal weight of oranges and lemons, in which case the sugar is increased to 1 1/4 cups.