| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 2 hr 50 min |
| Prep: | 10 min |
| Cook: | 2 hr 40 min |
| Yield: | 1 (8-inch) cake |
| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 2 hr 50 min |
| Prep: | 10 min |
| Cook: | 2 hr 40 min |
| Yield: | 1 (8-inch) cake |
Ingredients
- 4 to 5 clementines (about 1 pound total weight)
- 6 eggs
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 1/3 cups ground almonds
- 1 heaping teaspoon baking powder
Instructions
- Put the clementines in a pot with cold water to cover, bring to the boil, and cook for 2 hours. Drain and, when cool, cut each clementine in half and remove the seeds. Then finely chop the skins, pith, and fruit in the processor (or by hand, of course).
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
- Butter and line an 8-inch springform pan with parchment paper.
- Beat the eggs. Add the sugar, almonds, and baking powder. Mix well, adding the chopped clementines. I don’t like using the processor for this, and frankly, you can’t balk at a little light stirring.
- Pour the cake mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 1 hour, when a skewer will come out clean; you’ll probably have to cover the cake with foil after about 40 minutes to stop the top from burning. Remove from the oven and leave to cool, in the pan on a rack. When the cake is cold, you can take it out of the pan. I think this is better a day after it’s made, but I don’t complain about eating it anytime.
- I’ve also made this with an equal weight of oranges and lemons, in which case I increase the sugar to 1 1/4 cups and slightly Anglicize it, too, by adding a glaze made of confectioners’ sugar mixed to a paste with lemon juice and a little water.
Reviews
I’ve made this divine recipe several times, each lessening the amount of sugar and time to boil the clementines. Comes out perfect every time!
this cake is fabulous. I made it one day, served it to delighted company the next day, and 2 days later finished the moist dessert.
Nigella is so gorgeous!!
I make this cake regularly! It’s the perfect way to utilize aging citrus in the house and it’s a bright & delightful cake. Not overly sweet, great texture, and perfect with a cup of black coffee or espresso in the afternoon for a pick me up. Simple and delicious, exactly why we love our girl Nigella.
So good, love making this for my family and friends. Been using this recipe for years.
My family loves this unique cake. We use 2 large naval oranges vs 4 clementines.
It was ok but not as good as the chocolate version in Feast. This one is sort of meh and we threw out 1/4 of the cake due to lack of interest which is pretty rare in our house. There are too many eggs so I reduced to five as I also do with the chocolate one. I also add a teaspoon of salt as it’s very flat and a teaspoon of real vanilla. It did taste bitter but I had good clementines and I am familiar with her cooking of the fruit method. The chocolate version uses oranges instead and this cake might benefit from using an equivalent of orange instead of the clems. There is no bitterness with the cooked oranges. I have even tossed in some marmalade and it was delicious. Might make this again and see if that works, maybe add some cardamom to bump up the flavour profile but If you haven’t made the chocolate version try it.
I love this cake.
Interesting cake! We loved it. I was looking to get rid of some older clementines and found this. But I didn’t have almonds, so I used walnuts. Added a touch of natural rum extract and some extra sugar because of the age of the clementines. It was only 45 minutes in the oven. I saved the water and made an orange simple syrup to use in iced tea. Love using the whole orange, so healthy!
Loved this cake!