Mandarin Almond & Cardamom Cake

A delicious and moist mandarin almond and cardamom cake.

This recipe was created when the office job I had at the time had too many mandarins from the weekly delivery that no one was eating.

I took them home and played around with some ingredients.

The mandarin cake turned out perfect and tasted amazing.

It works so well with almond meal in making it super moist. It is all gluten and refined sugar free.

INGREDIENTS

350-400g mandarins, peel and pips removed (approx. 4 large mandarins)*

3 eggs

¼ cup maple

1 tsp vanilla been paste or 1/2 tsp vanilla powder

¼ cup coconut oil or butter, melted and cooled

1 cup almond meal

1 cup desiccated coconut

¼ tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 ½ tsp cardamom

Toasted flaked almonds for topping

For the Syrup

1 mandarin, peel and pips removed

¼ cup filtered water

½ tbsp coconut sugar

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METHOD

1. Line a 20cm round cake tin with non-toxic parchment paper.

2. In a bowl add all the dry ingredients and mix. Set aside.

3. Place the mandarins in a blender and puree. Add in eggs, maple syrup, vanilla paste, oil or butter and process .

4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients bowl and stir until well combined.

5. Pour the batter into the cake tin.

6. Bake at 160 degrees for 50-60 minutes. Test by inserting a skewer to check it has been cooked through.

7. Leave cake in the tin for 10 minutes before removing.

8. While the cake is cooling, make the syrup.

9. In a blender puree the mandarin with the filtered water. Poor through a sieve so only the juice remains.

10. In a small pot add the juice and coconut sugar. Bring to a boil then simmer for approximately 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. The syrup should thicken slightly.

11. Poke some holes in the mandarin cake and pour the syrup over the cake. 

12. Top with toasted flaked almonds.

*NOTE

The weight of mandarins should be taken after peel and seeds have been removed.