The recipe for this truly yummy boiled clementine cake by Claire Thomson, chef & food writer, popped up on my instagram feed just when I needed it most!
I’d been searching for a quick and easy recipe to share with you, as I was bothered it had been far too long since I’d shared anything fresh on my blog. And whilst I wasn’t short of ideas, I wanted to make something with ingredients I already had in, and also as I’d left myself short of time (as always), the recipe needed to be simple.
The cake turned out really well, Almond and orange is such a great flavour combination. The sponge is deliciously soft and squidgy and SO beautifully vibrant in colour. I confess to a slight dip in the centre of the cake, but I’m putting this down to me not using the correct size tin and the batter being a bit too weighty for the height of the tin. If you use the correct size tin, I’m confident all will be well and your cake will look simply splendid, just like the one Claire made!
Another huge plus, is this cake is naturally gluten free.
Ingredients
3 small clementines (or 2 satsumas or 1 large orange) wash well in hot water to remove any wax residue
5 large eggs
220g golden caster sugar
250g *ground almonds
1 teaspoon gluten free baking powder
*Icing sugar to dust over the finished cake (not in the ingredient shot, only came to me after I’d made the cake)
Method
Grease and line a 22cm cake tin. I like to add two strips of greaseproof that are long enough to hang over the cake tin. I then pop a disk of greaseproof paper on top. The strips of greaseproof act like handles and make lifting the cake from the tin much easier.
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4/160C Fan.
After giving the citrus fruit a good old wash and removing the stalks, place them into a large pan of cold water, pop them on the heat and bring to the boil.
Boil for 15-20 minutes until the fruit become soft and puffy.
Remove the citrus fruit from the pan and leave to cool completely, before cutting them into quarters and blending with a stick blender or in a liquidiser.
Add the eggs and sugar to a large mixing bowl and whisk with an electric whisk or stand mixer until the mixture doubles in volume and becomes pale and creamy.
Spoon in the pulped citrus fruit and gently fold it into the mixture.
Blend the baking powder with the ground almond, using a fork and then add this to the beaten egg and sugar mixture. Fold in gently to ensure all that precious air you’ve whipped in isn’t knocked out.
Transfer the mixture into the prepared tin. As I previously mentioned I used the wrong size tin, so yours won’t be as full as mine is on the picture.
Bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer when inserted into the centre of he cake comes out clean.
Remove the cake from the oven and leave it to cool fully before turning it out onto a cooling rack.
Once the cake is cold, dust with icing sugar.
Recipe notes and suggestions
This cake will keep really well in an airtight container. I didn’t cut into the cake until the day after I made it and the texture was perfect. Although I’ve not tested out the theory, I feel this cake will keep well for up to a week if kept in a nice cool spot.
Delicious just as it is, but should you wish to serve it up for pudding, a generous scoop of a excellent *vanilla or *raspberry ripple ice-cream, a splash of cream or even a spot of homemade custard would make most welcome accompliments to this VERY lovely cake!
Thanks to Claire Thomson for her wonderful boiled clementine cake and for being so kind in allowing me to share her recipe with you on my blog! If you don’t already follow Claire on Instagram then I highly recommend you check her page out @5oclockapron. She’s also written 11 cookbooks, and has a new one that will be coming out later this year, called Dear Grace. A cookbook written for her daughters, and for the world to enjoy too.
Happy baking!
For now,
Liz x
*Check this product to ensure that there are no gluten containing ingredients, ‘may contain’ or ‘not suitable’ for a coeliac/gluten free diet warnings on the pack.
