"My" Darling Clementine...Cake

Not too many people don't like cake..
including me! 

I am not the only one in the family who likes to bake, my oldest daughter is quite a talented baker in her own right. Many years ago she found and would make a dense cake that used Clementines to flavor a white cake. The cake really needed to have holes poked in it and have a juice based glaze poured over it, it was yummy and moist once that was done, and so when I asked for her recipe, I fully expected my own cake turn out the same way. I do not know what I did wrong, or perhaps right, but my own cake came out moist on it's own, light, fluffy and well so delicious, I know it will not be long before I make another one and perhaps a lemon  or even a lime version. I like both versions, her's more like a short cake type of texture and mine; either way the credit goes to my daughter Chanda ( @pandasbaking on Instagram) ..so thanks kiddo! 

So let's get started!

You will need Clementine's or oranges, or lemons, even
limes would work

Gather your ingredients...

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
4 eggs, room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoon grated clementine zest
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons fresh squeezed clementine juice ( about 7 clementines total depending on size of fruit)

In the meantime...

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. Butter the paper and set aside ** I did not have a round cake pan, no idea where it went! So I used a 8x8 square pan, but then did the same as the instructions state. 

Cream the butter and sugar well for several minutes, until it is very pale and thick. You can see just how pale and thick in the below photo...I really whipped it for quite a long time and at a high speed. 

It should hang from the beater

Add the eggs one by one, beating well after each addition, then add the zest. Add the flour, baking powder and salt all at once, and beat well, then slowly add the clementine juice until it is incorporated. Below, you see what the batter will look like.

I ended up juicing most of all the fruit I had, drinking some of
the juice and  .....

....eating a couple....

... of course zesting as the recipe calls for, and...

This is what the batter looks like after mixing it, again
maybe for a little, bit..ok maybe a lot longer than perhaps
my daughter did...so creating a lot of air in the batter.

Oh and what to do with all those rinds? Use them
to freshen up your garbage disposal! 

Next....

Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin, and bake for 35-40 minutes - or until an inserted skewer comes out clean (If it starts to brown too much on the top, cover loosely with a sheet of foil I had to.) **Baking times CAN vary, I think because I used a smaller pan and the batter was deeper and more airy, it took closer to 60 minutes to fully bake. Test it with a toothpick, clean knife, and you can always test the doneness with how well it springs back to the touch.

Make sure you tap the pan a bit to level the batter out. 

Allow cake to cool in pan for 15-20 minutes on a wire rack. Then invert onto a plate, remove the parchment paper and allow to cool completely before glazing...I of course decided on not glazing after I saw how light and fluffy my came turned out....but I did add a bit of a last touch to it.

You can judge how dense or fluffy the cake will be
just by the spring back it has once baked.

Once cooled, I was able to flip it onto a plate..again the cake
was so fluffy that lines really made an indent...those do not
bother me tho, does not effect the taste. If they bother  you,
flip cake onto a plate to cool 

As I was not going to make a glaze, I instead made a
flavored powder sugar...you can do this by using
dehydrated zest, I happen to love Penzeys Spices
powdered lemon peel so there is no large bitter pieces.
You can find them online.  

Once creating the powdered sugar mix, then you can use a sifter and a spoon to
create a light "snow" on top. 

Isn't it pretty??

How does it taste??

I mark this cake as "Ruby's Musings Approved" 

A bit of news.....

This past week I was having a contest to giveaway some handcrafted vintage inspired Valentines created by Krissy at Ettatorials, and raffle copter picked a random winner and that winner is....

Congratulations to you Jessica of Chronically Vintage

In other news...

I have started vlogging as well on YouTube.  Taking the cue from my FB followers that enjoyed my weekly greetings that I would post on the fan page, but expressing they wish they were longer, I have begun to vlog. It is a rough and bumpy start to be sure, and it is a lot more involved and time consuming than I thought, props to online friends Emily The Vintage Doll, Miss Semi Sweet and Cherry Dollface !! But nothing ventured, nothing gained. You can find me HERE on my main page and HERE for the actual video.... or by searching for Ruby's Musings on YouTube

See you Friday for a very special blog post!