Type | Cake |
---|---|
Course | Dessert |
Created by | Possibly originated from an orange cake developed by the Sephardi Jews |
Serving temperature | Cold or warmed |
Main ingredients | Clementine fruit and typical cake ingredients |
Similar dishes | Fruitcake |
Clementine cake is a cake flavored primarily with clementines. It may be topped with a sweet glaze or sauce, powdered sugar, honey and clementines, or candied clementines. It may originate from an orange cake in Sephardic cuisine. In popular culture, the cake played a minor part in the plot of the 2013 film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.
The cake is sometimes prepared using whole clementines in their peels, seeds and all, boiled.
Joyce Goldstein called it a classic. The Sydney Morning Herald called it famous.
Clementine cake is prepared with clementines, ground almonds or almond meal, flour, sugar, butter and eggs. [1] [2] Optional ingredients include orange juice, orange muscat, milk, white dessert wine, or Riesling wine, [3] [4] orange oil or tangerine oil (or both), [3] almond extract and vanilla extract. [3] Some variations exist, such as being prepared without the use of flour. [2] [5]
The cake can be prepared with clementines and/or clementine zest mixed in the batter, [1] [6] [7] with them atop the cake, such as in slices, and in both ways. [2] The seeds and membrane of the clementine can be removed as part of the preparation process, [2] [4] [8] or seedless clementines can be used. [9] Whole, sliced clementines including the peel, [1] [10] [11] [12] or peeled clementines can be used, [8] and the clementines can be cooked before being used in the cake batter. [13] The fruit can be chopped or blended using a food processor. [13] Candied clementines can be used atop the cake or as a garnish. [3] [2] The almonds used can be toasted or blanched. [3] [9]
Clementine cake can be finished with a sweet topping such as a sugar or chocolate glaze, [2] [14] a fudge or chocolate sauce, [6] [15] powdered sugar or honey. [1] [2] [16] Clementine cake is dense and moist, [8] [11] [12] and its flavor may improve a day or more after preparation, [2] [5] [13] [17] because the ingredients intermingle and coalesce to enhance its flavor as it ages. After being cooked, the cake may be delicate and can fall if it is wiggled too much. [10] After preparation, it can be frozen to preserve it. [18]
It can also be prepared as an upside-down cake. [19] [20] Individual cupcakes are a common variation.
Clementine cake is probably related to a Sephardic orange cake. [7] Sephardic Jews popularized citrus cultivation in the Mediterranean region [21] in the 15th century and popularized the use of orange in baked goods. In addition to its Iberian flavors, the cake also has North African and Spanish roots. [22]
Claudia Roden, writing for The Guardian, said that she'd traced the evolution of the dish, which she describes as a Sephardic passover dish, "from Andalucia, through Portugal and Livorno in Italy, to Aleppo". [23] The New Yorker said that Roden's recipe had been adapted by so many other cook book writers that Roden had lost count. [24]
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Joyce Goldstein called it a "classic Judeo-Spanish cake". [17] In 2020, Jill Dupleix, writing for the Sydney Morning Herald, called it the "the now famous, never-bettered, flourless Sephardic cake". [25] Nigella Lawson called Roden's recipe "magnificent" [26] and created an adaptation. [2] [5]
Clementine cake played a minor part in the plot of the 2013 film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty , and was included in the opening scene of the film and in a couple of additional scenes. [2] [10]
Turrón, torró or torrone is a southwest European and Moroccan nougat confection, typically made of honey, sugar, and egg white, with toasted almonds or other nuts, and usually shaped either into a rectangular tablet or a round cake. Turrón is usually eaten as a dessert food around Christmas in Spain and Italy. It is also popular in Portugal, Morocco, and Latin America.
Danish cuisine originated from the peasant population's own local produce and was enhanced by cooking techniques developed in the late 19th century and the wider availability of goods during and after the Industrial Revolution. Open sandwiches, known as smørrebrød, which in their basic form are the usual fare for lunch, can be considered a national speciality when prepared and garnished with a variety of ingredients. Hot meals are typically prepared with meat or fish. Substantial meat and fish dishes includes flæskesteg and kogt torsk with mustard sauce and trimmings. Ground meats became widespread during the industrial revolution and traditional dishes that are still popular include frikadeller, karbonader and medisterpølse. Denmark is known for its Carlsberg and Tuborg beers and for its akvavit and bitters, but amongst the Danes themselves imported wine has gained steadily in popularity since the 1960s.
Cheesecake is a dessert made with a soft fresh cheese, eggs, and sugar. It may have a crust or base made from crushed cookies, graham crackers, pastry, or sometimes sponge cake. Cheesecake may be baked or unbaked, and is usually refrigerated.
A garnish is an item or substance used as a decoration or embellishment accompanying a prepared food dish or drink. In many cases, it may give added or contrasting flavor. Some garnishes are selected mainly to augment the visual impact of the plate, while others are selected specifically for the flavor they may impart. This is in contrast to a condiment, a prepared sauce added to another food item primarily for its flavor. A food item which is served with garnish may be described as being garni, the French term for "garnished."
Spoon sweets are sweet preserves, served in a spoon as a gesture of hospitality in Bosnia, Serbia, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Kosovo, Cyprus, the Balkans, parts of the Middle East, and Russia. They can be made from almost any fruit, though sour and bitter fruits are especially prized. There are also spoon sweets produced without fruit.
Maamoul is a filled butter cookie made with semolina flour. It is popular throughout the Arab world. The filling can be made with dried fruits like figs, dates, or nuts such as pistachios or walnuts, and occasionally almonds.
Israeli cuisine primarily comprises dishes brought from the Jewish diaspora, and has more recently been defined by the development of a notable fusion cuisine characterized by the mixing of Jewish cuisine and Arab cuisine. It also blends together the culinary traditions of the various diaspora groups, namely those of Middle Eastern Jews with roots in Southwest Asia and North Africa, Sephardi Jews from Iberia, and Ashkenazi Jews from Central and Eastern Europe.
Quince cheese is a sweet, thick jelly made of the pulp of the quince fruit. It is a common confection in several countries.
Bermudian cuisine reflects a rich and diverse history and heritage blending British and Portuguese cuisine with preparations of local seafood species, particularly wahoo and rockfish. Traditional dishes include codfish and potatoes served either with an add on of hard boiled egg and butter or olive oil sauce with a banana or in the Portuguese style with tomato-onion sauce, peas and rice. Hoppin' John, pawpaw casserole and fish chowder are also specialties of Bermuda. As most ingredients used in Bermuda's cuisine are imported, local dishes are offered with a global blend, with fish as the major ingredient, in any food eaten at any time.
A peanut butter and jelly sandwich (PB&J) consists of peanut butter and fruit preserves—jelly—spread on bread. The sandwich may be open-faced, made of a single slice of bread folded over, or made using two slices of bread. The sandwich is popular in the United States, especially among children; a 2002 survey showed the average American will eat 1,500 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before graduating from high school. There are many variations of the sandwich, starting with the basic peanut butter sandwich or jam sandwich.
Mizrahi Jewish cuisine is an assortment of cooking traditions that developed among the Jews of the Middle East, North Africa, Asia, and Arab countries. Mizrahi Jews have also been known as Oriental Jews.
Sponge cake is a light cake made with eggs, flour and sugar, sometimes leavened with baking powder. Some sponge cakes do not contain egg yolks, like angel food cake, but most of them do. Sponge cakes, leavened with beaten eggs, originated during the Renaissance, possibly in Spain. The sponge cake is thought to be one of the first non-yeasted cakes, and the earliest attested sponge cake recipe in English is found in a book by the English poet Gervase Markham, The English Huswife, Containing the Inward and Outward Virtues Which Ought to Be in a Complete Woman (1615). Still, the cake was much more like a cracker: thin and crispy. Sponge cakes became the cake recognised today when bakers started using beaten eggs as a rising agent in the mid-18th century. The Victorian creation of baking powder by English food manufacturer Alfred Bird in 1843 allowed the addition of butter to the traditional sponge recipe, resulting in the creation of the Victoria sponge. Cakes are available in many flavours and have many recipes as well. Sponge cakes have become snack cakes via the Twinkie.
Muhallebi is a milk pudding commonly made with rice, sugar, milk and either rice flour, starch or semolina, popular as a dessert in the Turkey and Middle East. While the dessert is called Muhallebi in Turkey and Iraq, the Egyptian variant is called mahalabia, the levantine variant is called mahalabiyeh.
Applesauce cake is a dessert cake prepared using apple sauce, flour and sugar as primary ingredients. Various spices are typically used, and it tends to be a moist cake. Several additional ingredients may also be used in its preparation, and it is sometimes prepared and served as a coffee cake. The cake dates back to early colonial times in the United States. National Applesauce Cake Day occurs annually on June 6 in the U.S.
Strawberry cake is a cake that uses strawberry as a primary ingredient. Strawberries may be used in the cake batter, atop the cake, and in the frosting. Strawberry cakes are typically served cold.
Beer cake is a cake prepared using beer as a primary ingredient, and other typical cake ingredients. Chocolate beer cakes may include stout and chocolate stout beer, and some gingerbread cakes include beer in their preparation. The Rabha tribe in India uses a type of beer cake prepared with rice to create rice beer and fotika, a liquor. Beer cake variations exist, such as root beer cake.
A banana cake is a cake prepared using banana as a primary ingredient and typical cake ingredients. It can be prepared in various manners, including as a layer cake, as muffins and as cupcakes. Steamed banana cake is found in Chinese, Malaysian, Indonesian and Vietnamese cuisine. In the Philippines, the term "banana cake" refers to banana bread introduced during the American colonial period of the Philippines.