Thanksgiving Day is mostly going to be unpacking for us, so, among other things, we’ll be thankful for a result of no more boxes. But I’m also a kind of puritan baker–no frills, no frosting, zen like simplicity–and I hope I can squeeze in some time for this ridiculously easy cake from Nigella Lawson. I’ve made it and the orange chocolate variation to rave reviews in the past.
Clementine Cake
Ingredients
13 oz (ounce) clementines
6 medium egg(s)
8 oz (ounce) white sugar
9 oz (ounce) Ground almonds
1 teaspoon(s) baking powder
Put the clementines in a pan with some cold water, bring to the boil and cook for 2 hours. Drain and, when cool, cut each clementine in half and remove the pips. Dump the clementines – skins, pith, fruit and all – and give a quick blitz in a food processor (or by hand, of course). Preheat the oven to gas mark 5/190ºC. Butter and line a 21cm Springform tin.
You can then add all the other ingredients to the food processor and mix. Or, you can beat the eggs by hand adding the sugar, almonds and baking powder, mixing well, then finally adding the pulped oranges.
Pour the cake mixture into the prepared tin and bake for an hour, when a skewer will come out clean; you’ll probably have to cover with foil or greaseproof after about 40 minutes to stop the top burning. Remove from the oven and leave to cool, on a rack, but in the tin. When the cake’s cold, you can take it out of the tin. I think this is better a day after it’s made, but I don’t complain about eating it at any time.
I’ve also made this with an equal weight of oranges, and with lemons, in which case I increase the sugar to 250g and slightly anglicise it, too, by adding a glaze made of icing sugar mixed to a paste with lemon juice and a little water.
No fears, I’m not going to make this blog into a recipe haunt. Food is already well represented on the web (a fave: food52). And like free software, cats, and naked people, recipes are not really in need of more effort. Happy Thanksgiving!
A Few Reasonable Words 