clementine upside down cakes

A few weeks ago the people behind the Clemengold brand dropped off a large box of Clemengold’s at my house and said ‘enjoy and have fun’.

Well thank you very much, that is exactly what I did.

After some research I still cant figure out exactly what fruit the Clemengold is other than a derivative of the Nadorcott Mandarin which is marketed under the trade name Clemengold in South Africa. They are a seedless citrus fruit that are delectably sweet and easy to peel. They look  like a Clementine to me, so for the benefit of the global readership of this blog, this is what the recipe will be named.

I ate most of mine straight up and chilled. Its the way I prefer to eat  fruit. I juiced a few one morning after a night before, but needed to squeeze about 10 to make a glass. Much better value to eat the fruit whole.

For this recipe I decided to adapt a classic pound cake recipe and the one I used for my orange drizzle cake. I like the slightly denser crumb with these cakes so that it can effectively soak up all the syrup.

This recipe makes 15 small cakes

• 225g butter – room temp
• 225g caster sugar
• 225g flour
• 2t baking powder
• 4 large eggs – room temp
• finely grated zest of 2 small Clemengold’s
• about 1/2 – 1 t of brown sugar for each cake
• 15 slices of peeled clementines (1 slice per cake)

Hot Syrup:

• 1/2 cup of clementine juice
• 1/2 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 180 c. Beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, allowing to fully combine between each addition Add the clemantine zest and mix. By hand sift the flour and the baking powder over the mix and fold it in to combine
Sprinkle around 1/2 – 1 teaspoon of brown sugar in the the bottom of each cavity of a greased muffin pan. Add a slice of clementine (cut about 1cm thick) on top of the sugar. Using an ice-cream scoop, evenly measure out the cake batter and dollop onto each clementine (about 3/4 of the way up the pan).  Bake for 25 – 30 mins, until golden brown.

Using a spatula gently loosen the baked cakes from the mould and tip out onto a cooling rack. Pour the warm syrup over the cakes to allow them to absorb.

They are perfect to serve just as they are, or you could add a dollop of fresh cream.