Citrus Syrup Tea Cakes

I have always thought that citrus was a summer fruit-with the exception of oranges. Oranges are available year round.  The sweeter of the orange family, the clementines, are actually a winter fruit. However, the tropical regions have a different seasonality.

The food industry can be tricky when it comes to getting ingredients.   The name of something may just mean the flavor, not the real thing.  Bacon bits are a good example.  As far as fruit, I am always reading that some type fruit is being presented as another. Today's recipe lists clementines as the major flavor ingredient.  At the grocers I found a box under the produce rack that said clementines. Inside the box were smaller containers, labeled sweet snack.  In the end, they were listed as mandarins on the receipt.  Apparently in Chile, the seasonality of these fruits has one on its way out of season while the other is just coming in season.

This recipe has a limited amount of ingredients, it has no butter, oil or milk. These cakes were dense and nutty, perfect for soaking up the tangy syrup drizzled on top. Most of the cake type of recipes in this book create heavier baked goods, which are a better to serve with tea.  They do not crumble and are great for dunking .  The method of preparation is unique-every part of the fruit is utilized, except for the seeds. Almonds may not be the first item that comes to mind when pairing with sweet clementines, but the combination does get a thumbs up in my book.

Be sure to plan in advance on this one, there is a 2 hour simmer of the clementines prior to mixing and baking.  This recipe makes 1 dz tea cakes.

Citrus Syrup Teacakes
Adapted from the Perfect Afternoon Tea recipe book

Ingredients/Cakes
2 cups ground almonds or almond flour
1 cup sugar
3 clementines
6 eggs

Ingredients/Syrup Topping
juice of 3/4 lemon
1 clementine rind, pith removed and cut into strips
1 3/4 cup sugar
1 cup and 2 tbs of water

Prepare a muffin tin by lining the cavities with cupcake papers.

Bring a saucepan full of water to a boil.  Slowly drop in all the whole unpeeled clementines.  Let boil for 2 minutes and reduce to a simmer.  Let simmer for 2 hours and remove from heat.  This process aids in reducing bitterness and softens the fruit.  Remove fruit from water and let cool.

Once the fruit has cooled, preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Cut the clementines in half and remove any seeds.  Place the halves in a food processor or a blender.  Process or blend the fruit until it becomes a puree.  Set aside.

Put eggs and sugar in a bowl and beat on low speed until foamy.  Fold in the ground almonds and then the puree.  Pour the mixture into the 12 cupcake cavities, making sure they are filled evenly.  Place pan in oven and let bake for 30-35 minutes.  The top center of the cakes should be set but there will be no browning on the edges of the cupcakes. Remove pan from oven.

Let cupcakes cool in pan for 2 minutes, and then transfer to rack to finish cooling.  During this time, prepare the citrus syrup.  Place the sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved.  Then add the lemon juice and strips of rind.  Bring to a boil.  Once it reaches that point, turn heat down and let the mixture simmer for about 2-3 minutes.  It should be just thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Once the cakes are cooled, drizzle the syrup over the top.  Each cake should have about 1 tablespoon of syrup on top.
                                           **LAST YEAR: Blondie Pie*                               
  

Tiger Tea Cakes

I found myself looking around for a recipe that required almond flour.  It had been sometime since I have used any of the flour and that bag seemed to always be staring back at me, even though I packed it in the freezer.

I landed on a unique recipe for tea cakes that used the almond flour in the batter.  The other good thing that caught my eye was that these little cakes had mini chocolate chips in them.  They were made in dome molds, but I decided to make them in my pan which had mini 1/2 circle cavities. You can make these in muffin tins as well.

The batter does have a strange consistency, but the cakes turned out wonderful.  They were like little pound cakes, with a tight crumb and very buttery.  The crowd did like them and they made for such a great presentation.  A nice dessert with afternoon tea or coffee. This recipe makes 16 muffin sized cakes or 12 cakes using the 1/2 circle pan.

Tiger Tea Cakes
adapted from Paris Sweets

Ingredients/ Cakes
1/3 cup flour
2 1/4 cup ground almonds or almond flour
3/4 cup sugar
5 oz mini chocolate chips
1 stick plus 7 tbs butter
1 1/2 tbs light corn syrup
6 egg whites, room temperature

Ingredients/Topping
5 oz bittersweet chocolate
1 stick of butter
3/4 cup heavy cream (for swirl on top)

Whisk the egg whites lightly.  Then add the corn syrup, ground almonds, sugar and the flour.  Mix until batter becomes smooth.  Cover top of bowl with plastic wrap and place in fridge for a minimun of 2 hours and maximum of overnight.

15 minutes before chilling time is complete, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Also butter the interior of the cavities of your pans, making sure there is capacity of 16.

In a small saucepan, melt the butter.  Remove from heat.  Take batter out of the fridge and pour the warm butter into the batter.  Stir until all of the butter is incorporated.  Once the batter is back to room temperature, mix in the chocolate chips.

Fill each muffin cavity with about 3 tbs of batter.  Once all batter is in the pans, place in oven and bake until golden on the edges.  This should take about 15-20 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool for about 3 minutes.  Then transfer cakes from pans to rack to finish cooling.

While the cakes are cooling, you can prepare the topping.  Melt butter and bring to a boil.  Remove from heat and spoon off the foamy layer on top. Pour the yellow butter into a bowl leaving the milky residue on the bottom of the pot.  Your bowl holds the clarified butter.

In a double boiler, melt the 5 oz of bittersweet chocolate.  Once melted, mix in the clarified butter.  Place the cooling rack with the cakes over a shallow rimmed baking sheet lined with wax paper. Pour the chocolate glaze over the cakes, making sure all areas are covered.

Place in fridge for 1 hour to allow the glaze to set.  Then beat the whipped cream and pipe a small swirl in the center of each cake.  Now they are ready to serve.
                         LAST YEAR: Cinnamon Topped Immortality Bars

Orange Poppy Seed Tea Cakes

There has always been a dilemma when it comes to what classifies as a cake, muffin, bread or scone.  Each one of these connotates a specific texture in each person's mind.  So before I lead you down the wrong path with the name of this post, I will be very specific regarding the texture of this baked good.

It is very dense, much like a scone.  The batter is very thick and has the same leavener ratio to flour as a lot of cookie recipes.  This is not a fluffy light cake by any stretch of the imagination.

The citrus flavors in the cake are very subtle which pairs nicely with the poppy seeds.  I found that with the light glaze, that there is enough flavor even though the recipe suggests  using butter or jam to spread on the split cakes.  

I used dariole molds to bake these in.  It gives the cakes a nice tall shape as you can see, however, it does take some time to prepare the molds prior to baking. This recipe makes 8 cakes.

Orange Poppy Seed Tea Cakes
adapted from Perfect Afternoon Tea Recipe Book

Ingredients
1 tsp lemon juice
grated rind of 1 lemon
2 tbs orange juice (cake)
grated rind of 1 1/2 oranges
1 1/2 tbs poppy seeds
1/4 cup plus 1 tbs vegetable oil
1/4 cup plus 2 tbs melted butter
2 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 tbs baking powder
2 eggs
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tbs orange juice (icing)

Prepare muffin pans by lining with paper cases or greasing the cups with butter.  If using molds, butter all insides and then line the inside edge with parchment paper.

Measure out the flour in a small bowl.  Remove 1/4 cup and 2 tbs of flour and place in another small bowl and set aside to reserve for later.

In a larger bowl, sift together the large amount of the flour and the baking powder. Then stir in the sugar.  Make a well in the center of the ingredients.

For the wet ingredients, mix together butter, oil, poppy seeds, lemon rind, lemon juice, orange rind and 2 tbs of orange juice.  Beat in egg for 30 seconds, then add the other egg, beating 30 seconds after addition.

Pour the wet ingredients into the well of the flour mixture and stir until no dry streaks remain.  Let batter rest for 1 hour.  Then preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

After the batter rests, fold in reserved flour mixture.  Your batter will be quite lumpy.  Fill the muffin cups or molds 3/4 full, making sure batter is even. Place pan in oven and let bake for about 25 minutes.  Cakes are done when they have risen and are golden on the top.

Remove pan from oven and let cool in pan for a few minutes.  Then transfer to rack to finish cooling.

In the meantime, icing can be made.  Sift powdered sugar into a small bowl. Stir in orange juice and add a small quantity of water to get to the correct consistency.  Then drizzle over cooled cakes.

                            **LAST YEAR: Fried Peach Pies**