Nigella's Clementine Cake - Oh my darling, Clementine!

Oh my darling, Oh my darling,
Oh my darling, Clementine.

My treasure chest is full of memories about the man who made my days bright by helping me see the world a bit differently, by sharing the knowledge beyond the textbooks. A treasure trove of knowledge, the man who once taught me the Clementine song - in fact, teacher to many. We all loved to sing along with him. Through his eyes, I have traveled around the world in a short time. One who taught me Mulligatawny is nothing more than our own "mulaku thanni."

Sir, to date, I take pride in the fact that I have shared the story of mulaku thanni with  many a Anglo-Indian including my husband and definitely Anglo-Indians can take full credit for teaching  me what steam cakes and salt mango tree are all about. I was in awe when I learned about this first. Hope you all know the recipes for polished steam cakes and salt mango tree.

Your undying passion to impart knowledge even at your old age - Salute you sir. The theory of love and life you shared have all stayed with us. Love you Menon Sir.

Nigella's Clementine cake is a sort of Middle Eastern Cake/dessert. This flourless dessert has a character of moist pudding to it, an orange lovers dream, tastes best the second day, aromatic, and if you are lucky enough you can even get Clementine without pips that make the road to orange heaven so simple. Do you know eating pith and all of orange is good for you. Read on here.

I was hesitant to try this because of the cooking time of oranges, which is 2 hrs  included in Nigella's recipe of a clementine cake. Instead, I tried to pressure cook, was worried about the end result, and cake turning bitter. Much to my amazement it was moist, sweet and orangey.

Ingredients
Clementines - 375 g
Eggs - 6 medium
White sugar - 225 g
Ground almonds - 250 g
Baking powder - 1 tsp

Method
Pressure cook clementines for 20 minutes. Drain the water and let the clementines cool. Cut each clementine in half to remove any pips, if  any. (My Clementines lacked pips, so the job was done within minutes). In a blender, put the clementines and blend to make a paste (skins, pith, fruit and all). Preheat the oven to 190 degrees celsius. Beat the eggs by hand adding sugar, ground almonds, and baking powder. Mix well. Finally add pulped oranges.

Pour the cake mixture into the tin and bake for 40 minutes to 1 hour. If your cake is not done in 40 minutes, cover with foil to stop the top from burning. Remove from the oven and leave to cool the cake in the tin itself. When the cake is cold, you can take it out of the tin.

We had the Clementine cake straight from the tin. Whatever remained the next day turned out to be very tasty.

Notes:

1. This dessert can very well fall into the category of make ahead dessert as it tastes best the following day and the intensely orange flavor is reduced.

2. Try serving orange cake with a dollop of cream for not so orange lovers. I think they are in for a kick.

3. Drain all the water after pressure cooking and before blending the oranges.