Festive jewel-like cranberries, citrussy aromas, a crown of deep green clementine leaves and a beautiful drizzled glaze… nothing says ‘Merry Christmas’ more joyfully than the Tala clementine and cranberry Christmas cake.
This very beautiful Bundt cake makes great use of the Tala Performance non-stick decorative cake pan. It is full of Christmas flavours and, containing oil rather than butter, it is a doddle to whip up by hand – no need for a food mixer. If you can, buy clementines with the leaves still on as they make a beautiful festive crown for the top of the cake.
Ingredients
For the cake
150ml sunflower oil
4 free-range eggs
2 clementines, washed
275g caster sugar
350g self-raising flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
0.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda
100g dried cranberries
For the glaze and decoration
100g icing sugar
1 tsp sunflower oil
juice from 1 clementine
extra clementines
clementine leaves (optional)
25g dried cranberries
Method
1. Put the kettle on to boil. Place two of the clementines into a small saucepan, cover with just-boiled water and simmer for 25 minutes. Drain off the water and allow the fruit to cool.
2. When cooled (no need to cool completely) roughly chop the fruits, peel and all, remove pips and blend roughly with a stick blender.
3. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius (320 Fahrenheit). Carefully grease and flour the Tala Performance decorative cake pan.
4. Place the eggs and oil into a medium sized mixing bowl, whisk, then add the blended clementines and sugar and whisk again.
5. Place the flour, salt, bicarb and baking soda into a large mixing bowl and whisk carefully to evenly distribute the raising agents.
6. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, mixing with the silicone headed spatula and eliminating lumps and pockets of flour. Add the dried cranberries and mix again, briefly, before transferring to the prepared cake tin and baking for 50 minutes.
7. Check and turn the cake after 30 minutes if necessary. The cake will be ready when it is golden brown, risen on top and a cake tester inserted mid-depth into the cake will appear to be clean when removed.
9. Turn the cake out onto a cooling rack and allow to cool completely – depending on the temperature of your kitchen you’ll need to allow at least an hour.
10. Prepare the glaze by placing the icing sugar into the (cleaned) medium size mixing bowl, adding the oil and a dessert spoon of clementine juice and mixing to quite a firm paste. Add more juice if necessary but bear in mind that the glaze needs to be quite thick or it will disappear into the cake.
11. Transfer the glaze into a piping bag with a round open tip and pipe the glaze over the top of the cake, round and round several times in a large ‘O’ shape until you are happy with the effect. The glaze will collect and drip down the sides of the cake. Leave it to set for 15 minutes or so.
12. While the glaze is setting, chop up the clementines reserved for decoration and arrange around the top. Sprinkle the remaining dried cranberries over the arrangement and tuck the leaves in and around the fruit. Serve to a gathering of cheery Christmas guests and enjoy.
