If your tree (or your neighbour's tree) is laden with mandarins, this is the most delicious way to use them up.

Recipe & Styling Natalie Homan | Photographs Brendan Homan

Sticky mandarin & rosemary cake with yoghurt
serves 8-12

350g mandarins, preferably seedless
1 cup caster sugar
5 eggs
200g almond meal
1 heaped tsp baking powder
strained Greek yoghurt to serve

for sticky mandarins
4 mandarins, preferably seedless
300g caster sugar
125ml mandarin juice
1 rosemary sprig, needles pulled from stem

Place the whole mandarins, unpeeled, in medium saucepan, cover with water, bring to the boil and simmer until tender (about 45 minutes).

Allow to cool slightly, break in half (removing seeds, if necessary) and squeeze out excess liquid. Place in a canister and blitz until smooth with a stick blender.

Preheat oven to 160C. Grease and line a 20cm springform cake pan.

For sticky mandarins, slice mandarins into thin rounds. Place sugar, mandarin juice and 1 cup water in a wide, deep heavy-based pan. Bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve sugar.

Reduce to a simmer, add mandarin slices and cook until tender. Carefully remove slices onto a tray with a spatula. Add rosemary to the syrup, increase to a boil and reduce by half. Set aside.

Arrange mandarin slices over the base of the cake tin. Whisk sugar and eggs until pale. Fold through mandarin puree, almond meal and baking powder.

Pour batter carefully over the mandarin slices. Bake for one hour, or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Cover cake with foil if browning too quickly.

Remove cake from oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes before turning out. Brush cake generously with the mandarin & rosemary syrup (you may need to reheat syrup).

Serve warm or at room temperature with strained yoghurt.

 

This article first appeared in the July 2022 issue of SALIFE magazine.