Mandarin and Walnut Cake.

I love a nice piece of fruit cake now and then. But I don’t booze, (my Scottish ancestors showed such an outstanding enthusiasm for heavy drinking that I’ve never had the nerve to start😂), and I can’t tolerate butter. So I came up with this simple little dairy and grog free cake that I can eat. It goes good with a cup of tea at about three PM when I inevitably begin to flag.

Ingredients

Three cups of fresh mandarin pieces.

One and a half cups of dried fruit.

Half a cup of a light flavoured oil.

Half a cup of maple syrup.

Two tablespoons of vanilla essence.

Cinnamon to taste (I use about a tablespoon).

One and a half cups of chopped walnuts.

Around about two cups of self-raising flour (See tips).

Enough toasted almonds to cover the cake. (Want to toast your own? See tips).

Instructions.

Take the mandarin pieces and remove the seeds. Then put them through your blender or processor until just chopped up and not quite pulverized.

Add the dried fruit, vanilla essence and cinnamon to the mandarin mixture. Allow it to soak for at least an hour, or until the dried fruit becomes plump.

When you are ready, add the maple syrup, oil and walnut pieces to the batter. Mix in the flour. Pour into a parchment lined cake tin.

Put the cake into a preheated oven at 240c (464 f). Bake at this temperature for about ten minutes. This will cause the cake to rise nice and high.

Remove from the oven and gently press the toasted almonds into the surface of the cake in an attractive pattern.

Drop the temperature of the oven to 220c (428 f).

Return the cake to the oven and bake for about another 45 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clean.

Allow the cake to cool for a full two hours before attempting to cut it. Otherwise, it will not hold its shape.

Dust with cinnamon before serving.

Tips.

Regarding the preparation of the mandarins, I used a wand, and I don’t recommend it. The mandarin pieces didn’t really come apart and this made cutting the finished cake difficult.   If I was to use that method again (some of our kitchen implements are still in storage), I would cut up the mandarin pieces first.

The flour measurement depends on how juicy your mandarins are. You need enough flour to form a nice stiff batter. Fruit cake is meant to be a little on the stodgy side, it’s a very British treat, after all.  Sprinkle in your flour in increments and adjust accordingly. On the other hand, a dry cake is ghastly. If your batter won’t hold together in a single lump, it is too dry. A little orange juice will fix this.

Toasting almonds is easy.  Simply throw a few handfuls into a frying pan. It is important that the almonds are only one layer deep. Let your pan get nice and hot. When the almonds start to smell really yummy, give your pan a little shake to ensure the almonds are toasted all the way round. Keep an eye on them, you don’t want them to blacken. No added oil is needed. Almonds have lots of oil in them, all you need to add is a little heat.