Mandarin, almond and chocolate cake

Winter heralds citrus fruit season. Although you can find oranges most of the year (as they store well in cold rooms) and lemons, mandarins are usually missing in action. The Imperial varieties are my favourites and it is a bonus when there are no pips. This deliciously moist cake is made with whole boiled mandarins and almonds, so happens to be gluten free. I love the combination of chocolate and orange, I add chocolate pieces to this cake – though you could easily omit these if you like.

Mandarin, almond and chocolate cake

350g mandarins (about 6 small ones)
100g almond meal*
100g hazelnut meal*
5 eggs
1 heaped tablespoon flour (GF if making gluten free)#
1 tsp baking powder (GF if making gluten free)
big pinch salt
150g sugar
70g dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces

(*NB. or you can use 200g almond meal)
(# I used Ardor Food Co gluten free flour)

Place the washed mandarins in a saucepan of cold water. Bring to the boil and simmer covered for about an hour. Drain, chop in half and allow to cool on a colander (make sure you catch the juice).

Preheat the oven to 150C fan. Line and sides and base of a 23 cm spring-form tin.

Remove all the pips from the cooled mandarins and discard. Place the remaining mandarin pieces (skin, pith, juice and all) in a food processor and blend until a smooth puree forms. Add the eggs, almond/hazelnut meal, sugar, flour, baking powder and salt and blitz until combined. Stir in the chocolate pieces.

Pour into the prepared tin and bake for about an hour or until it is firm to touch, golden and a skewer inserted comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tin.

Serve on its own or with thick Greek yoghurt. You can dust with icing sugar just before serving if you like. Lasts 4 days in a lidded container placed in a cool spot. I keep it in the fridge, it is lovely to eat cold or at room temperature..