Baking Advent Calendar day 23

When I started this Advent Calendar I hadn’t given much thought as to how it would pan out. There were some initial ideas about making all of the posts Christmas themed but I soon realised that I was setting myself up to fail if I went down that route. I like to think that the result has been a mixture of festive foods and other recipe options that you can dip into throughout the year. Tonight was never in doubt though. We’ve reached the final post and it has to be something for Christmas.

One obvious choice to have gone for would have been a traditional Christmas cake. That rich fruit cake, covered in icing, that is so synonymous with this time of year. The problem I would have had with baking and sharing one of those is that i don’t actually like them. I find that they often turn out too heavy, no one wants a slice on the day and you’re still wading through it weeks after the holiday is over. As an alternative I’ve opted for a clementine and almond cake with a streusel topping as my Christmas cake this year. It’s a recipe that I came across a few months back and straight away it said ‘special occasion’ to me.

Ingredients for the cake

• 3 unwaxed clementines, unpeeled
• 1 untaxed lemon, unpeeled
• 4 tbsp demerara sugar
• 6 eggs
• 250g soft brown sugar
• 250g ground almonds
• 1 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt

Ingredients for the streusel topping

• 25g plain flour
• 15g rolled oats
• 65g demerara  sugar
• 50g cold unsalted butter, cubed
• 25g pecan nuts

Method

• Put the unpeeled clementines .and lemon a saucepan. Bring to the boil and then simmer for an hour.
• While the fruit is simmering put all of the streusel ingredients in a food processor and blitz. Tip the streusel into a bowl and place it in the fridge.
• Heat the oven to gas mark 6. Grease a 24cm cake tin and coat all of the sides with the demerara sugar.
• Once the fruit has cooled scoop out the insides and discard the pips. Put the scooped out fruit into  a food processor and blitz to create a puree.
• In a mixer beat the eggs and sugar until pale. Add the ground almonds, fruit puree, baking powder and salt. Beat again until light and smooth.
• Pour the batter into the tin and top with the streusel mix.
• Bake for one hour. To test the cake is ready press  a skewer into the centre of the cake. If it is ready the skewer will come out clean 

So that just leaves me to say thank you for reading and to wish everyone a very happy Christmas