Suitable for vegetarians
This indulgent cake is made with ground almonds, as well as flour, to give it a lovely, moist texture
Serves 12
Ready in 1 hour, 45 minutes
Ingredients
- 600g clementines
- 150g plain flour
- 1½tsp baking powder
- 300g ground almonds
- 9 large free-range eggs
- 350g caster sugar
- Filling and topping:
- 4tbsp lemon curd
- 4 clementines
- 200g icing sugar
Method
1 Put whole, unpeeled clementines in a large saucepan with 1.5 litres of cold water. Heat until boiling, then cover and simmer for 1½ hours. As the clementines cook, occasionally mash them gently. Tip them into a bowl and leave to cool. Then put them into a processor or blender - or use a hand-held blender - and whizz to a purée.
2 Preheat oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4. Grease and line the bases of two 22cm, round, loose-based cake tins. Sift the flour and baking powder together into a bowl and then stir in the ground almonds.
3 In a clean bowl, whisk the eggs and caster sugar together until pale and mousse-like. Fold in the clementine purée and the almond and flour mixture. Pour into the tins and bake for 25-35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave in the tins for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool.
4 Sandwich the cakes together with lemon curd. Squeeze the juice from 1 clementine and reserve. Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and mix with enough juice to make a coating consistency. Pour the mixture over the cake, allowing it to drizzle down the sides. Peel and segment the rest of the clementines and arrange on top.