Gluten free if you like.
Serves: 8
Mmmmmm Mandarins. Surely they are one of the best things about winter! They provide a lovely sunshine in your mouth experience when eaten fresh but are just as good cooked. The juicy balance of tangy and sweet make them perfect for cooking both savoury and sweet dishes. If like me, you’ve raided a friends mandarin tree and have FAR too many, boil up some extras and freeze in 200g batches so you can be making and eating this divine cake all year round.
This moist and mandariny and not overly sweet Lil’ Legacy cake might brighten up the dreariest of winter days but on the hottest of summer days you’ll be thankful you had the foresight to have stored some away. And everyone else will too.
To make this cake in your Legacy Pan, make one and a half times the recipe.
INGREDIENTS
200g whole mandarins, about 5
4 eggs
¼ c olive oil or melted butter
150g white sugar
50g brown sugar
1 t ground cardamon
100g ground almonds
100g gluten free flour
1 t baking powder
1 t butter/olive oil and ¼ c ground almonds, to grease the pan
Extra mandarin slices for the top, thinly sliced
3 T maple syrup
METHOD
Cover the whole mandarin’s with water and a lid and boil 10 minutes. Change the water and boil again for 10 minutes then repeat the process once more. So all up the mandarins boil for 30 minutes. Cut in half, remove any pips and leave to cool. ***By changing the water you remove any bitterness from the peel.
Sift the gluten free flour and baking powder into the ground almonds. Grease your Lil’ Legacy Pan with butter or olive oil and liberally dust with ground almonds.
Heat oven to 160°C fan forced. In a high speed blender blitz cool mandarins, eggs, olive oil/melted butter, sugars and cardamon together until smooth and creamy. There should be no mandarin lumpy bits.
Whisk dry ingredients into the creamy orange mixture and pour into the prepared pan. Arrange mandarin slices neatly around the top edge and bake for 35 minutes until puffed, golden and cooked through.
Remove cake from oven and brush the mandarin slices and top of the cake with maple syrup and return to oven for another 5 – 10 minutes. The oranges should be beginning to caramalise. Dust centre of the cake with a little extra ground almonds and serve warm with extra maple syrup and lashings of cream, yoghurt or ice cream.
