Our mandarin tree has finally decided to fruit after six impatient years of waiting! Not only is it finally fruiting, but the tree is so heavy with fruit a few branches are actually dragging along the ground. As much as our family loves eating mandarins straight from the tree, I decided to trawl (not troll) through the web to find the perfect mandarin cake. I finally decided on Nigella Lawson’s Clementine Cake, but changed it a bit to reduce the sugar amount and increase the fruit. This cake is gluten and dairy free and not too sweet. It’s dense, moist and syrupy without the syrup – perfect for a tea time treat.

Ingredients

• 450g mandarin segments (approximately 6 mandarins)
• 1/4 tspn salt
• 5 eggs
• 250g almond meal
• 3/4 cup golden or white caster sugar
• 1 tspn baking powder (make sure it’s made of rice flour, otherwise it’s not fully gluten free)

Peel, separate and remove any seeds from the mandarin segments and blitz them in a food processor or with a stick blender. Blitz until the mandarin pulp is smooth. Set aside and preheat the oven to 190C/350F.

Using a stand or hand held mixer whisk together the eggs and sugar until it is pale and fluffy (around 5 minutes). Gently fold through the almond meal, salt and baking powder. The cake mix should now resemble a thick mousse. Gently fold through the mandarin pulp.

Pour the cake mix into a greased and lined 8 inch/20 cm round cake tin. Bake for approximately 1 hour or when an inserted skewer comes out clean. Let it cool in the tin before removing.

Decorate with a generous dusting of icing sugar or pour over a sticky lemon or mandarin syrup.