SHH - Oranges Part 2 - Tangerines

I'm embarrassed to say that until recently, I thought Clementines were just a small variety of orange. Nope. They are tangerines. And here I thought I was smarter than a fifth-grader. Anyway, they are still in the family of oranges and they are pretty tasty. I won't post a video of me singing "Oh my darlin'..." to them. But, I do have a certain fondness for the little cuties.

They are pretty yummy just to eat as a snack. After I peel one to eat, I put the peel in the pitcher of our Mr. Coffee Iced Tea Maker and let it lightly flavor the tea. You can strain it out when pouring. It's pretty delicious.

As I was surfing the internet, I came across Nigella Lawson's recipe for Clementine Cake. Well, I love Nigella and this cake sounded delicious and easy. It's so easy, if you can use a food processor, you can make it. (Note: there's a little toggle button on this website that lets you switch from metric measurements to imperial. Wish I'd seen that before I did all the Googling for conversions. I'm not the most observant sometimes.) Oh, and 190 degrees C is 375 degrees fahrenheit.

Nigella had already made this pretty healthy, using no flour and using ground almonds instead. I used her recipe exactly as she wrote it, but I added a shot of Triple Sec (wishing I had Grand Marnier, but oh well). Not for health's sake. Just because I had it and I wanted to throw it in.

Here are my little Clementines after they've been boiled and cut to remove the little stem part. Nigella said to remove "the pips". I had to look that up. Apparently it's the seed, but mine didn't have any seeds.

Nigella didn't say what size springform pan to use, so I transferred the batter to my Pyrex bowl to see how much there was of it. It was 5 1/2 Cups.  Then I realized that didn't help because my springform pans weren't marked for volume. Oh well. 

I used a 9" springform and it worked perfectly. Isn't that the prettiest batter you've ever seen? I didn't know whether to bake it or paint my walls with it! 

Must wait to dig in. Must wait to dig in. Must wait to dig in. 

The resulting cake is very simple, very dense, so much moister than you'd expect. As Nigella said, it's even better the next day.  I had some with my dark roast coffee for breakfast the next morning. 

This cake will stay moist as long as you have it. It never loses moisture. You can wrap in foil or a ziploc baggie and leave on the counter for a few days. If you're going to have it around longer than four days, put it in the fridge to keep it from getting moldy.

Finally, we need a little Tangerine music, don't we? Who knew there were so many songs about Tangerines?