I've just noticed that my last three recipes have been fruit based. And I'm going to bolster that and add to the collection with a fourth today.
I've always been into citrus desserts but I've a real hankering from them especially at the moment. Lemon curd and raspberry madeleines, tarte au citron, iced blood orange cake, the list seems endless.
Today's recipe is my take on the classic St Clement's cake.
Sweet sunshine of orange meets lemon's tart astringency in a dessert that F is particularly taken with, I hope you are too!
F's dad brought one of these back from a London bakery and whilst delicious, I thought it could be.. adjusted to my tastes a little more (more citrus and less sugar) so I set about coming up with a recipe that better suited my culinary inclinations.
My version of the St Clement's cake is somewhere between a tarta de Santiago and lemon drizzle cake. Actually I think 'cake' as a descriptor is somewhat misleading because it's not spongey and aerated like my Castella cake or a good Victoria sponge - which is why I've gone for 'torte'. It's moist and dense (in the good sense) like a pudding. Sort of firm and substantial, and cuts well. To the cake world as a turbot or monkfish is among fish.
Not to mention that it's butter and gluten free too.
And because of the lack of creaming together butter and sugar, and there not being a risk of overworking any flour, it's incredibly easy and foolproof to whip up.
Here's what you'll need..
Ingredients:
2 large oranges
2 clementines
1 very large or 2 smaller/average lemons
5 medium eggs
250g ground almonds?
200g + 3-4 tbsps caster sugar
1 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
50g flaked almonds, toasted
Method:
- preheat an oven to 160 degrees celcius and lined a 20cm cake tin with parchment paper.
- zest both oranges, clementines and a lemon. Set aside.
- place the oranges and clementines into a saucepan and cover with water. Simmer on a medium heat for an hour and leave to cool (this can be done ahead of time, eg the night before). Once cool, peel the pith off the fruit.
- in a bowl, whisk up the eggs.
- blend the cooked fruit and zest in a food processor until (pretty) smooth.
- add this mixture to the eggs and whisk to combine.
- in another large mixing bowl, mix the baking powder, 200g sugar and a little pinch of salt into the ground almonds.
- add the citrus-egg mix into the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until fully combined.
- pour into the lined cake tin and place into the centre of the oven for 60 minutes or until an even golden colour on top and a skewer comes out completely clean. Allow to cool in the tin, on a wire rack.
- whilst the cake is cooling, make a syrup using the juice of one very large lemon (or 2 smaller lemons) and 3-4 tbsps sugar. Simmer on a medium heat for around 5 minutes.
- brush the syrup over the top of the almost cooled cake to glaze. I usually only end up using half the glaze as I find the ground almonds take a lot less syrup than a traditional drizzle cake, but use as much or as little as you see fit.
- decorate with toasted flaked almonds.
The beauty of this particular cake is that it's better a couple of days later. And I don't recall being able to say that about many a cake that tastes this fresh and light.
Served entirely plain and unadorned (other than an obligatory cup of earl grey for me), it's beautifully mellow yet zippy on it's own. I do like to indulge in a dollop of lemon curd and natural yoghurt if I've any on hand once it's dried out a little though.
A great dessert to enjoy out in the garden maybe - now that the weather seems to be warming up a tad and we've got the extra hour of daylight in the evenings!
xx
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