Claudia Roden’s mandarin and almond cake
makes 1 x 28cm cake, 16 portions or a half batch makes 1 log
700g unwaxed mandarins
20g unsalted butter, very soft
14 x 61g whole eggs, warmed in a bowl of hot tap water
55og caster sugar
600g blanched almonds
10g double action baking powder or 20g standard baking powder
Method
Put the mandarins into a stainless steel saucepan and cover with cold water. Put on low heat and cover with a lid and simmer very gently until they are very soft. Claudia’s recipe recommends passing through a coarse sieve, but we have found that we can gently prize the soft mandarins open remove any obvious pips and puree in a blender or Thermomix which speeds up the process considerably.
pre heat the oven to 175°C
Butter the tin and line the bottom and sides with baking parchment. Put the almonds and sugar into a food processor or blender and process until the almonds are very fine. Whisk the eggs until they are pale and voluminous, add the almond and sugar mix and baking powder and then fold through the mandarin puree.
Bake for 50 minutes to an hour, or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted.
Allow the cake to cook in the tin until it is just warm to the touch on the underside. If you try to tip it out too soon it will break into pieces.
tip — makes a fabulous dessert with the glacé mandarin and some good ice cream. we especially like vanilla bean and walnut praline or mandarin made with the syrup instead of sugar and some chopped
glacé mandarin added to the churned ice cream. As a log it is great for afternoon tea or just in the kids lunch boxes.
in Australia were mandarins are so plentiful and cheap it is a wonder more people don’t juice them. They are easy to peel and also make a really fab jelly and sorbet!
