I will never forget the day I made this cake. It was several years ago. I lived in a tiny studio apartment in Minneapolis, and I wasn’t prepared for the aroma of boiled clementines to flood every inch of my living quarters. Truthfully, there wasn’t much to flood. And, once it was cloaked in silky chocolate and ready to eat, I didn’t care. If you, like me, look forward to those giant trays of Cuties every year, please try this cake. It only makes those sweet, little clementines that much better.
Clementine Snack Cake with Chocolate Glaze
Adapted from The New York Times
Makes one square cake
CAKE:
7 medium clementines
6 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups almond flour or very finely ground blanched almonds
2 teaspoons baking powder
GLAZE:
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped or chips
6 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
1 tsp raw honey
CAKE:
Place whole unpeeled clementines in a large pot, cover with cold water and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer gently for 2 hours, adding more water as needed. Remove clementines with a slotted spoon and, once cool enough to handle, halve and remove any seeds or other hard bits. Purée in a food processor or blender and set aside. (May be done up to 2 days ahead and refrigerated.)
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8x8x2 square pan, and set aside. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs together with the sugar, salt and clementine purée. Add the almond flour and baking powder and stir until just combined. Pour into prepared pan and bake, rotating halfway through, until edges are golden brown and starting to pull away from sides of pan, about 45 minutes. Transfer to wire rack set over baking sheet. After 10 minutes, run a knife around edge of pan to loosen cake; remove cake from pan. Return cake to wire rack to cool completely.
GLAZE:
Heat a pan of water until simmering. Place all ingredients in a slightly smaller metal or glass mixing bowl and set over the pan. Stir gently with a spatula until nearly all the chocolate has melted, then remove bowl from heat and set aside to finish melting, stirring occasionally until perfectly smooth, about 5 to 10 minutes. Pour glaze onto center of the cake’s top and let it run down the sides. Gently tap the cooling rack up and down so the glaze coats the entire cake. Let set for at least an hour before serving.
this is sacred space 