Kitchen Diary

Hellooo there from down by the bay! There is nothing spring like about the weather today, well the whole week actually, so I have spent a lot of time in the kitchen baking and cooking. We had a wonderful holiday and rested and relaxed to our hearts content and have returned fresh and ready to work again. I have a LOT of work to catch up, but thats generally what happens after you have a break. Top of my list of course is working with the last of the ClemenGold fruit that I have and developing some more delicious recipes. The first one on my list has to be this one…the most deliciously dense, moist and fruity ClemenGold Cake. WOW! This is a winner and something that you should all try. Its really easy to make and is quite sublime!

COLLEEN’S CLEMENGOLD CAKE

Servings:  8 – 10 slices

Ingredients:

250g Whole Blanched Almonds (OR finely ground Almonds if you have them on hand)

6 Extra Large Free Range Eggs

5ml Baking Soda or Baking Powder

230g Sugar

4 ClemenGold (total weight between 375 and 400g)

2ml Salt

For the syrup: (Optional but delicious)

Juice of 3 ClemenGolds (about 150ml)

60g Sugar (I used Agave Crystals)

5 Cardamom Pods – bashed slightly

Method:

Wash the ClemenGolds well then place in a saucepan and cover well with water

Bring to the boil over medium heat, cover saucepan and boil gently for about  an hour until the fruit is tender

Allow to cool then remove the tiny green stem bit and discard. Cut the fruit into halves then blitz the fruit (peel and all) with a handheld stick blender or food processor to make a puree. Set aside.

Turn the oven on to 190^oC and spray the base and sides of a 23cm springform cake tin. Line the bottom with baking paper

(Omit this next bit if you already have almond meal)

Place the almonds in a dry frying pan and toast over a medium heat until the aromas start wafting up from the pan and the nuts are turning lightly golden. Keep agitating the pan and tossing the nuts so they don’t burn on the one side. Cool almonds a bit then grind finely

Sift over the baking soda and salt and mix into the almonds

Beat the eggs and sugar until pale and thick, fold in the almonds and then the ClemenGold puree

Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and bake for 30 minutes then turn the oven down to 180^oC cover the cake with a sheet of aluminum foil and continue baking for another 15 to 20 minutes. Test with a skewer to see if it is done in the middle. The skewer should come out clean

While the cake is baking for the last 15 minutes or so juice the ClemenGolds and add to a small saucepan with the sugar and cardamom pods

Boil rapidly for a few minutes to reduce and form a thickish syrup

As soon as the cake comes out of the oven pour the hot syrup over the cake. It will all absorb.

Allow cake to cool completely, in the tin, on a cooling rack then turn out onto a plate, dust with some icing sugar and serve with a dollop of crème fraiche, mascarpone, Greek yoghurt or vanilla ice cream

Although delicious once cold, the texture and flavor of the cake improves overnight so bake this the day before for maximum flavor

The syrup poured over the cake is an optional, but extremely delicious, extra

 Just look at that bright orange colour that comes out in the cake and in the syrup. You just don’t get colour like that from other citrus!! It brings instant sunshine into my heart every time. Sadly the season is over now in South Africa so the waiting begins for Autumn and Winter 2012! Who knew I would wish my life away for a little, perfectly round, bright orange, sweet, intensely aromatic citrus fruit??

And the beauty of this cake is that those with gluten or dairy intolerances can eat it as it is totally dairy and gluten free! What a bonus!! It has no butter….I would say this cake should be classified as Low GI  

Tandy, over at Lavender and Lime Blog is organizing a Secret Santa event for bloggers world wide. If you would like to participate in this lovely event then do go over and read this post and let her know that you would like to play! The idea is that you give your details to Tandy and she will randomly allocate another blogger (in the same country if possible) that you will send a secret gift to for Christmas.  The more the merrier Christmas will be…so head on over and join in the fun. I think its a fabulous idea!! Well done Tandy!

If you are participating you can put this very cute Santa hat onto your blog as a widget using the following html code….

[<a href="http://tandysinclair.com" target="_blank"><img title="" src="http://tandysinclair.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/c2a9-secret-santa.jpg?w=150" alt="" width="150" height="150" /></a>] 

Have an awesome weekend!

browniegirl xx