Life just gets better. One minute the mandarin tree branches are breaking under the strain of the weight of fruit, next I’m leading the Mandarin Rescue Team and discovering amazing mandarin recipes to boot!
Seriously, what goes crack in the night? A fully laden mandarin tree that can’t carry the load any more! While I may have been a little greedy by not wanting to thin the fruit too avidly come summer, I will have to suffer the consequences of a slightly limbless tree for next season.
I digress. What a wonderful flourless mandarin cake recipe I (a) found (b) then improvised and adapted!!
First things first, you don’t even have to peel the mandarins for this one! Literally they are thrown into a blender skin-on and whizzed up into a delightfully coloured pulp. That was the first discovery.
Next was the realisation that I had no almond meal so I did, as all good urban homesteaders do, and made my own alternative. With my wicked little blender I pulsed up some whole almonds into a fine powder…but to my dismay, didn’t have enough. Determined not to let it beat me, I whizzed up some pumpkin seeds and pinenuts and added that to the mix as well. Yum! What a great experiment with perfect results.
Almonds are lovely and certainly carry that distinctive flavour, but they certainly aren’t the be-all and end-all when it comes to flourless baking. You should try experimenting with other nutty/seed combinations ground finely. The pumpkin seeds add a nice fleck to the cake too.
Mandarins are in season, and so far my growing list of recipes include Mandarin Eton Mess and Drunken Mandarins but that’s just the beginning. There will be no chance of a cold this season. My Vitamin C levels will be through the roof.
Flourless Mandarin Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 6 mandarins, skin on
- 1 cup sugar
- 5 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla paste
- 1/2 cup whole almonds
- 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
- 1/2 cup pinenuts
- 1 tsp baking powder
Syrup
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 mandarin (skin and fruit)
Method
- Pre-heat the oven to 180°C. Line a spring-form cake tin with baking paper to cover the bottom and also approx 5 cm up the side of the tin.
- Wash fruit and pat dry with paper towel. With a knife, quarter the skin-on mandarins and flick out seeds (if necessary). Put into blender and puree. Transfer into a large bowl. Add sugar and mix together.
- Add eggs and stir thoroughly into the mandarin mixture, along with vanilla paste.
- In the blender, whiz up 1/2 cup of whole almonds, 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds and 1/2 cup pinenuts until powdery (although don’t be concerned if there are still a few lumpy bits as they add to texture and colour). Measure to ensure the combined weight is 200g. Add extra ground nuts/seeds of any of the above combinations to make up that amount.
- Fold through the ground meal and add baking powder into the mixture. It will be runny but don’t be concerned.
- Pour into lined baking tin and bake for 1 hour. Check to ensure the top doesn’t over-brown (cover with tin foil if necessary) and check with a skewer to ensure it’s cooked through before removing from oven.
- Leave in the tin for 10 minutes to cool before transferring to a wire rack.
- While cooling, prepare the mandarin syrup. Add sugar to water and bring to boil, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Cut thin strips of the half of the mandarin peel (discard the remainder of the peel) and add to liquid. Individually segment the mandarin fruit and also add. Stir gently on a low simmer for approx 15 minutes until the syrup begins to thicken. Take off heat and pour over the top of the cake.
- Garnish with dainty lavender flowers (yes, they are edible) and serve. Delicious!
