Jan's Clementine Cake

Another fixed item in my Christmas repertoire is my clementine cake. This is suitable for any number of reasons. First, it's made of the clementines which are seasonal. Then there's the fact that you need to cook them for 2 hours: you're more likely to be hanging around the house and to feel in the mood for this sort of thing during the Christmas period. It's incredibly easy to make; even if you're stressed out, it won't topple you over into nervous collapse. And, finally, it's such an accommodating kind of cake: it keeps well, indeed it gets better after a few days, and it is perfect either as a pudding, with some crème fraiche, or as cake to be eaten with seasonally sociable visitors in the mid-morning or afternoon. What more do you want? It was only after I did this a few times - the route it took to get to me was circuitous, as these things can be - that I realised it was more or less Claudia Roden's orange and almond cake. It is a wonderfully damp, dense and aromatic flourless cake: it tastes like one of those sponges you drench, while cooling, with syrup, only you don't have to. This is the easiest cake I know. View with US measurements From How To Eat - [l45]

Another fixed item in my Christmas repertoire is my clementine cake. This is suitable for any number of reasons. First, it's made of the clementines which are seasonal. Then there's the fact that you need to cook them for 2 hours: you're more likely to be hanging around the house and to feel in the mood for this sort of thing during the Christmas period. It's incredibly easy to make; even if you're stressed out, it won't topple you over into nervous collapse. And, finally, it's such an accommodating kind of cake: it keeps well, indeed it gets better after a few days, and it is perfect either as a pudding, with some crème fraiche, or as cake to be eaten with seasonally sociable visitors in the mid-morning or afternoon. What more do you want? It was only after I did this a few times - the route it took to get to me was circuitous, as these things can be - that I realised it was more or less Claudia Roden's orange and almond cake. It is a wonderfully damp, dense and aromatic flourless cake: it tastes like one of those sponges you drench, while cooling, with syrup, only you don't have to. This is the easiest cake I know. View with US measurements From How To Eat - [l45]