If you like the crisp edges of lasagne, the soaked croutons, the whipped cream that gets icy around the chocolate scoop - you’re in the right place.
Hi folks!
I hope that those of you who celebrate had great Easters. Thanks to all of you who cooked from my recipes in the Times. I made the chewy lemon cookies and despite ignoring my own advice not to bake more than four cookies on a tray, they were great.
Another hit from our spring break was this carrot and clementine cake—fluffy and sparkling with citrus glaze. It’s basically a carrot cake, but because it skips the cream cheese frosting and finds its acid instead with clementines in the batter and on top, it can be eaten warm and for breakfast. I’m no longer seeking the perfect Morning Glory muffin.
Carrot & Clementine Cake
This cake splits the difference between carrot cake and morning glory. It has the nutty moistness of carrot cake but the tender crumb of the breakfast food. To turn the recipe into muffins, divide the batter into tins and reduce the bake time by 15 minutes. Include sultanas if you like.
For the cake
2 cups (250 grams) AP flour
½ teaspoon (3 grams) baking soda
2 teaspoons (8 grams) baking powder
1 teaspoon (3 grams) ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon (1½ grams) kosher salt
¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons (200 ml) canola oil
1½ cups (250 grams) light brown sugar, packed
3 eggs, separated
1½ cups (200 grams) carrots, peeled and coarsely grated, packed
1¼ cups (150 grams) walnuts, roughly chopped
1 clementine, peeled and chopped into ¼-inch pieces
For the glaze
2 clementines
¼ cup (50 grams) light brown sugar
2 teaspoons turbinado sugar
Heat the oven to 350 Fahrenheit. Butter and line a 9-inch cake tin with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, combine the AP flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the canola oil and brown sugar until it looks like wet sand, about a minute. Whisk in the egg yolks, then fold through the carrots, walnuts, and chopped clementine.
Scrape the wet mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients and combine.
In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks, either by hand or with a mixer. Fold these through the batter gently to preserve and incorporate their air. Pour the batter into the lined cake tin and bake for 30 minutes, or until the top of the cake is set.
While the cake bakes, make the glaze. Zest the clementines into a tiny saucepan and squeeze over the juice. Add the light brown sugar and simmer to make a syrup, about 3 minutes.
When the cake has been baking for 30 minutes, open the oven door and pour the glaze evenly over the top of the cake. Sprinkle over the turbinado sugar and continue to bake for another 20-25 minutes, or until a cake skewer, inserted in the middle of the cake, comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and let the cake stand for 5 minutes before removing it from the tin and eating it warm.
And a few photos from Easter at Stissing House: Wedding barn converted to egg hunt hoedown. Mark your cals for next year.
Thoughts on what to do if some of my cake eaters are allergic to nuts (and some pick them out of cakes, leaving a trail of nuts everywhere?)
Could you use a naval orange (a small one) in this? I'd have to buy a bag of clementines, while I have two orange trees in my back yard. Thanks, it sounds delish. I, too, would leave off the turbinado sugar as I find it gritty and it sets my teeth on edge! Wimp.......