A few months ago Tabari and I saw the movie The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, and we both loved the movie and were intrigued by the cake mentioned in the movie a few times. We recently watched the movie again as a family and this time around Tabari made me promise to make the cake. So began my search to find the recipe for the Clementine Cake from the movie. The things we do for our kids, lol. The original recipe is from Nigella Lawson found on the Food Network.
One of things I found so intriguing about this cake is it using the entire Clementine, skin in all! Also instead of using regular flour, you use crushed almonds! Yup another exclamation point is needed for the the above sentence. I took the following pictures on my cell phone, so please forgive the the graininess.
I made vanilla butter cream frosting for the cake, but you can easily make a glaze or serve it plain. I liked that the butter cream added a bit of sweetness to the cake.
One of things I found so intriguing about this cake is it using the entire Clementine, skin in all! Also instead of using regular flour, you use crushed almonds! Yup another exclamation point is needed for the the above sentence. I took the following pictures on my cell phone, so please forgive the the graininess.
The recipe from Smitten Kitchen suggests using 5-6 clementines, but my clementines were on the small side and I ended up using 9 clementines.
The following recipe is adapted from Nigella Lawson.
Homemade Clementine Cake
8-9 small Clementines
6 large eggs
1 1/4 cups of Sugar
2 13 cups of Almond Flour (I bought Almond flour from Trader Joes)
1 teaspoon of baking powder.
Place the clementines in a medium size bowl and fill with water, bring the clementines to a boil cover and cook for two hours. Once the clementines are done cooking, let them cool and then slice the clementines in pieces. Next utter the sides of the pan and line a 9 inch spring form pan with parchment paper and turn the oven on to 375 degrees.
Place the clementines in a food processor or blender and mix until smooth.
Next blend together the eggs and sugar once blended well add in the almond flour and baking powder. Pour batter into the spring form pan. Check on cake at 30 mins and bake until knife comes out clean. I baked my Clementine Cake for 40 mins. Allow cake to completely cool before removing the cake from the spring form pan.
I made vanilla butter cream frosting for the cake, but you can easily make a glaze or serve it plain. I liked that the butter cream added a bit of sweetness to the cake.
The cake tuned out amazing and super moist. It tastes like a light citrus cake and so flavorful. My family loved the cake, it didn't last long in my house! Avery even asked for 'more please' after he had his fist slice lol. Even though boiling the clementines was time consuming, I'll be making this cake again very soon. I think this cake is perfect for a brunch, since its so light yet very filing.
