Clementine Cake

I liked this recipe from NYTimes, but we had some discussion about if we liked the chocolate glaze on it or not. As you know, I LOVE chocolate orange.  But I do think the glaze, or at least the quantity of it, or the darkness of it, did overwhelm the cake. I might try again with a not-as-dark chocolate glaze, or less, a mere skim on top, maybe. Or the cake would be good just with powdered sugar, or with a syrup like you use on lemon cakes. The candied oranges Mom made for the top stole the show, though. They were PERFECT and beautiful.

5-8 clementines for 13 oz

Spray cooking oil

6 large eggs

1 c sugar

1 t salt

2 c almond flour

2 t baking powder

1 t vanilla

Place whole, unpeeled clementines in a large pot, cover with cold water, and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer gently for 2 hours, adding more water as needed. 

Remove clementines with a slotted spoon and, once cool enough to handle, halve and remove any seeds or other hard bits. Puree in a food processor or blender and set aside.

Heat oven to 350. Spray a 9 inch springform pan with cooking oil, line bottom with parchment paper, and spray paper with oil.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs together with the sugar, salt, and clementine puree. Add almond flour and baking powder and stir until just combined.

Pour into prepared pan and bake until edges are golden brown and starting to pull away from sides of pan, about 1 hour. Transfer to wire rack set over baking sheet. After 10 minutes, run a knife around the edge of pan to loosed cake; remove cake from pan. Peel off parchment paper and return cake to wire rack to cool completely. 

Decorate with powdered sugar, or with chocolate glaze and/or candied clementines.

8 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped or chips

12 T butter, room temp and cut into 12 pieces

1 T corn syrup

Heat a pan of water until simmering. Place all ingredients, plus 5 T water, in a slightly smaller metal or glass mixing bowl and set over the pan. Stir gently with the spatula until nearly all the chocolate has melted, then remove bowl from heat and set aside to finish melting, stirring occasionally until perfectly smooth, about 5-10 min. The glaze is ready to pour when it is between 88-90 degrees.

Pour glaze onto center of the cake’s top and let it run down the sides. Gently tap the cooling rack up and down so the glaze coats the entire cake. Let set for at least an hour before serving.