Clementine Cake
This clementine cake celebrates citrus baking like no other. Made with whole clementines, a cracking lime sugar syrup and served with a rich cheesecake citrus cream, it gives a hit of sharp citrus that is balanced perfectly with sweetness. Olive oil keeps this cake wonderfully moist and moreish, making it the perfect way to use your clementines in the citrus baking season.
Clementine Cake
Clementine Cake
Clementine Cake
“Cool lady, knows how to bake.” A quote from one of my all time favourite movies, Walter Mitty, and the inspiration for this clementine cake. I mean, surely isn’t that what we all want said about us?
The inspiration also comes from an absolute gift of clementines (my assigned collective noun) from my best friend and her glorious clementine tree, or as we actually call them in Australia, mandarins.
The first thing you’ll notice when you make this recipe is the citrus that perfumes the kitchen as you set about boiling them. It’s wonderfully intoxicating. This is an old fashioned style clementine recipe (sans almonds) that makes you feel like you’re harking back to days where everything in the ingredient is used, and true experimentation in baking is refined (like what happens if we boil the skin long enough to remove the bitterness). None of this 10 minute cake business here. This whole clementine cake recipe is what you make on a slow day at home, or a loving gift for a friend.
It was an absolute joy to develop this recipe, despite the first attempt being inedibly bitter, learning how long to boil the clementines to remove the bitterness, and coming up with the secret ingredient that makes this clementine cake unbiasedly the world's greatest clementine cake (Yes, better than the clementine cake Nigella makes), the lime sugar syrup which is poured generously over the cake to give it a ‘zing’ you just don’t expect. And is why the cheesecake citrus cream, a totally optional, but exceptionally delicious accompaniment, is served alongside, and not as an icing, ensuring true celebration of the citrus season, and a resounding “yummmm” from the mouths that eat it.
If you’re looking to bake a cake for Christmas, and citrus is in season in your part of the world, make this a Christmas clementine cake decorated with some rosemary dusted with icing sugar. Cute.
Here’s a pro tip, if you are given a gift of clementines, or have a big old tree ripening all at once in your backyard. Weigh them and work out how many portions you’ll get, then boil them all down at once, blend and divide them into freezer bags. You’ll have months of clementine puree on hand to whip a clementine cake up without the long boiling time.
Cooking tips for baking a clementine cake (basically a list of don’ts)
- Do make sure any stickers are peeled off the fruit before boiling (obvious).
- Don’t shorten the boiling time, it will taste bitter.
- Do check on the water and top it up as it reduces, it may reduce to nothing if you don’t top it up.
- Don’t leave any seeds or any big pithy bits, discard them before blending, use a knife to cut off any hard/pithy bits from the segments.
- Don’t wait for the cake to cool to add the citrus syrup (I have done this) the result is a soggy cake, and the icing sugar doesn’t hold its dusted look.
Equipment to make a clementine cake
- A 20cm/8 inch round loose-bottom cake tin, or spring form pan.
- Electric beaters or stand mixer.
- Food processor or high powered blender.
More winter baking recipes
- Dark chocolate cremeux
- Poached pears with gingerbread caramel
- Cinnamon crunch brown butter muffins
- Apple pie crepes
- Cinnamon roll granola
Store clementine cake in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4–5 days. Bring it to room temperature before serving for the best texture and flavour. If the cake is being served with the cheesecake citrus cream, store the cream separately in the fridge and add just before serving.
Wrap the cake tightly in plastic wrap and place it in an airtight container or freezer bag. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge, then bring to room temperature before serving.
Follow the steps to make the clementine puree. Allow the puree to cool fully, then portion into the amount needed for one cake and transfer to a flat freezer bag or airtight container. Freeze for up to 3 months for the best flavour.
Ingredients and substitutions
How to make it - step by step!
Remove any stem stumpy bits from the clementines/mandarins, then put them in a full pot of water, simmer for 1.5 hours until soft. Remove and cool slightly. Top up with water as needed throughout the cooking process.
Remove from the water, to a cutting board. Cut the clementines in half and scoop out any seeds and any white pithy bits. From the skin and the segments, don’t leave any big bits of pith.
Put them in a food processor and blend into a puree.
Preheat the oven to 170 C / 338 F, and line a 20cm / 8 inch diameter cake tin with a cut circle the size of the base of your tin.
Add eggs, caster sugar and lime zest in a bowl, whisk (or beat) to combine. Then add olive oil and beat until combined and lighten in colour.
Add the clementine paste along with sour cream, flour and baking powder. Fold until fully combined.
Bake for 50 minutes or until lightly browned and springy to touch. Remove from the oven and place tin on a wire rack.
To make the sugar syrup, add the caster sugar and lime juice to a small saucepan and heat to dissolve the sugar.
Poke holes into the top of the cake with a skewer or piece of spaghetti, and then drizzle over the syrup. Allow to cool completely.
While the cake is cooling, if you choose to make the cheesecake cream, add the cream cheese to a bowl and beat to soften. Add the cream, sugar, lime and mandarin juice to the cream. Beat until smooth and creamy. Place in the fridge.
To serve, remove the cake from the tin. Dust your cake with icing / powdered sugar, cut into slices and serve with a dollop of citrus cream.
Remove any stem stumpy bits from the clementines/mandarins, then put them in a full pot of water, simmer for 1.5 hours until soft. Remove and cool slightly. Top up with water as needed throughout the cooking process.
Remove from the water, to a cutting board. Cut the clementines in half and scoop out any seeds and any white pithy bits. From the skin and the segments, don’t leave any big bits of pith.
Put them in a food processor and blend into a puree.
Preheat the oven to 170 C / 338 F, and line a 20cm / 8 inch diameter cake tin with a cut circle the size of the base of your tin.
Add eggs, caster sugar and lime zest in a bowl, whisk (or beat) to combine. Then add olive oil and beat until combined and lighten in colour.
Add the clementine paste along with sour cream, flour and baking powder. Fold until fully combined.
Bake for 50 minutes or until lightly browned and springy to touch. Remove from the oven and place tin on a wire rack.
To make the sugar syrup, add the caster sugar and lime juice to a small saucepan and heat to dissolve the sugar.
Poke holes into the top of the cake with a skewer or piece of spaghetti, and then drizzle over the syrup. Allow to cool completely.
While the cake is cooling, if you choose to make the cheesecake cream, add the cream cheese to a bowl and beat to soften. Add the cream, sugar, lime and mandarin juice to the cream. Beat until smooth and creamy. Place in the fridge.
To serve, remove the cake from the tin. Dust your cake with icing / powdered sugar, cut into slices and serve with a dollop of citrus cream.
Watch the how to video
Watch the how to video
Clementine Cake
- 50g clementines
- 4 large eggs
- 1 lime zest
- 180g caster sugar
- 100ml olive oil
- 135g plain flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 80g sour cream
- Icing sugar
- 3 tbsp caster sugar
- 100ml lime juice
- 250g cream cheese
- 300ml thickened cream
- 80–100g icing sugar
- 100ml lime juice
- Remove any stem stumpy bits from the clementines/mandarins, then put them in a full pot of water, simmer for 1.5 hours until soft. Remove and cool slightly. Top up with water as needed throughout the cooking process.
- Remove from the water, to a cutting board. Cut the clementines in half and scoop out any seeds and any white pithy bits. From the skin and the segments, don’t leave any big bits of pith.
- Put them in a food processor and blend into a puree.
- Preheat the oven to 170 C / 338 F, and line a 20cm / 8 inch diameter cake tin with a cut circle the size of the base of your tin.
- Add eggs, caster sugar and lime zest in a bowl, whisk (or beat) to combine. Then add olive oil and beat until combined and lighten in colour.
- Add the clementine paste along with sour cream, flour and baking powder. Fold until fully combined.
- Bake for 50 minutes or until lightly browned and springy to touch. Remove from the oven and place tin on a wire rack.
- To make the sugar syrup, add the caster sugar and lime juice to a small saucepan and heat to dissolve the sugar.
- Poke holes into the top of the cake with a skewer or piece of spaghetti, and then drizzle over the syrup. Allow to cool completely.
- While the cake is cooling, if you choose to make the cheesecake cream, add the cream cheese to a bowl and beat to soften. Add the cream, sugar, lime and mandarin juice to the cream. Beat until smooth and creamy. Place in the fridge.
- To serve, remove the cake from the tin. Dust your cake with icing / powdered sugar, cut into slices and serve with a dollop of citrus cream.