Firecracker Clementine Cake
Catherine Lawson
One of the things I love about Christmas is the shift towards seasonal fragrances. We choose candles and scented sprays which bring frosted fir trees and frankincense into our living rooms and bake cakes which are laden with the scent of hot buttered sugar and sloshes of booze. It’s in the kitchen that I first find myself getting in the Christmas mood each year, usually around November, when I start to bake the cakes which will leave my home scented with whispers of cinnamon, citrus and spice for days to come. It’s a glorious time for a baker.
Each Christmas I make a cake which embraces festive flavours and fragrances while offering a lighter, fresher alternative to the traditional fruit-heavy sponges. This firecracker clementine cake is one of my favourites – the fragrance alone is worth the effort. Clementines are a festive essential for me; slightly sweeter, a little bit firmer and a good deal less acidic than tangerines and satsumas. In this recipe, they’re the star of the show, turning this polenta-based cake into a rich, golden orange sponge. It’s a thing of beauty.
The other key ingredient, and the reason for the name, is chilli – a spice which pairs beautifully with the sweetness of clementines. Though not perhaps a traditional ingredient in the world of cakes, it’s one which is surprisingly pleasant in both flavour and sensation. The trick is to add enough of the right kind (not a Scotch bonnet!) so that there’s a tingle, not a burn, in every bite: a kind of afterthought which leaves you smiling.
Though relatively simple for a festive bake, this cake delivers colour, flavour, texture and fragrance in abundance. Decorated with touches of orange, red, gold and green, it’s also one which sits pretty as a picture on any Christmas table.
FOR THE CAKE
4 whole clementines
(weighing approx. 350g in total)
300g caster sugar
200g ground almonds
240g fine polenta
2 tsps gluten free baking powder 4 large eggs, beaten
220ml light olive oil
FOR THE SYRUP
1 small red chilli (mild)
very finely diced
Juice of 2 clementines
100g caster sugar
1 cinnamon stick
TO DECORATE
1 clementine cut into slices
with a slit to twist
(about ½ cm wide)
Few sprigs of rosemary
Few pomegranate jewels
Edible gold leaf (optional)
METHOD
Pre-heat the oven to 170 C and grease/line a 9” round springform tin (grease with light olive oil).
Place the 4 whole clementines in a pan of cold water (make sure the water covers them) and bring to a simmer for 20 mins, until a knife pierces through easily.
Drain the clementines and blitz them in a blender, skins and all, until pureed. Remove any stones and set the puree aside.
Mix the sugar, almonds, polenta and baking powder together in a large mixing bowl, then whisk in the eggs, the clementine puree and the olive oil.
Pour the cake mix into the tin and bake for approx 1hr 15 mins or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean (start keeping an eye on it after 1 hr).
Leave the cake to cool and then remove from the tin before preparing the syrup.
To make the syrup, put all the ingredients in a pan along with 30ml cold water. Bring to the boil then reduce to a simmer for 5 mins or until all the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat and leave for ten minutes before removing the cinnamon stick.
Prick the top of the sponge all over with a fine skewer and carefully spoon over the warm syrup, distributing the chilli pieces evenly.
To finish, arrange the twisted clementine slices round one side of the cake, adding the rosemary sprigs and pomegranate jewels in between. If you’re adding gold leaf, very carefully (using tweezers) add little, occasional touches to the clementine slices.
