Happy Easter! I just got back to Cambridge from a great 24 hours at home, and had the best time hanging out with family, playing with little kids, and eating chocolate for every meal.

This year, Erik came home with me, and he picked the recipe to bake for dessert – clementine cake. It was part of quite the dessert assortment (clearly the focus of our Easter planning):You’ll see some chocolate strawberries, daisy lemon tarts (my mom made them!) and of course M&Ms.

More interestingly, in the bottom left of this picture is dyed eggs. Funny story here – I was on the phone with my mom while she was grocery shopping, to make sure we had the right ingredients for the cake (more on that later) and she was looking at eggs. Puzzled, she’s telling me about this carton of dyed eggs, and decides she’s going to get it. That night, when we went to crack the eggs to make the cake, one knock on the side of the bowl revealed these were in fact hard boiled eggs, not raw. A closer look at the package showed they were labeled as such. We don’t really eat hard boiled eggs in our house, but they were pretty, so they made the dessert table as decoration.

Anyways, the cake. I really liked this one as not overly sweet – and we served it with some whipped cream, that was also not sweetened. Easter is such a candy and chocolate heavy day, that a dessert in the “grown-up” category felt like a good fit.

Also, it’s so weird how you make it!

First, in a microwave safe bowl with a lid, put 5 clementines in a little bit (half an inch) of water. Pierce each clementine a number of times with a fork. Cover the clementines and microwave on high for 10 minutes.Remove from dish and let cool until able to handle.When you can handle the clementines, half them and remove any seeds/hard parts.Put them in a blender (Vitamix) or food processor, skin and all, and puree until well blended.In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, and clementine puree. Whisk in the almond flour until just combined.The almond flour note: I have text message proof that I asked my mom for almond flour. But, as you all know, she is a huge coconut fan, and therefore translated “almond” to “coconut” and bought me coconut flour instead. I would have loved to sub it, but coconut flour is not actually an easy thing to substitute for anything. Gotta love late night grocery trips on the nights before holidays! (Thanks Mom and Dad!)

Bake to the cake – pour the batter into a 9 inch cake pan sprayed with cooking spray.Bake for about 30 to 40 minutes at 350°F, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Let the cake cool in the pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely. And that’s it! Clementine cake!
Serve it with some whipped cream, and you’ve got a great springtime dessert, not too sweet, but still feels like a treat.

Enjoy!

Clementine Cake

Ingredients:

• 5 clementines
• 6 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 cups almond flour

Directions:

1. In a bowl with a lid, place clementines in about 1/2 inch of water. Pierce each clementine with a fork a couple of times. Cover bowl and microwave on high for 10 minutes.
2. When clementines have cooled enough to handle, cut in half and remove seeds and hard parts. Put clementines in food processor or blender and puree.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar, and clementine puree until smooth.
4. Whisk in almond flour.
5. Pour cake batter into 9 inch cake pan sprayed with cooking spray.
6. Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
7. Allow to cool 5 minutes in pan before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.