I've only seen Clint Page and Dar Webb a handful of times, but each time I do see them they have a treat for me. Once, they showed me their kick-ass collection of vintage guidebooks. Another time they gave me a copy of a 1939 Works Progress Administration roadmap. And, most recently, they showed up to hear me speak — and present a recipe for gluten-free cake (I love cake).
It seems the duo's been following this column and decided to dig out their food formula for a certain clementine cake, the one Dar's aunt used to bake for a celiac friend. I couldn't wait to make it; I've seen their tastes and trusted them to hand over a delicious dessert that wouldn't taste gritty or traditionally GF.
There was only one small problem: finding clementines in November. In trying to score them, I've learned more about clementines than I ever hoped to know. Should you have a few hours to kill, go ahead and Google "clementine taxonomy." The least you need to know is that clementines are similar enough to tangerines, so I figured — what the hell — I can still make this using those other orange orbs named for their association with Tangier, Morocco.
The clementine cake made with tangerines was, quite possibly, the least popular dessert I've ever made, and not because it was GF. Oh, it looked delightful, but it was way too tart.
Made with clementines, though, it's practically perfect in every way. As in, nothing like the "not cake" I usually expect GF cake to taste like. It's not so much the taste as that GF flour, which tends to be grainy. Almond flour — though, like I've said before, I don't consider this to be a thing because it really isn't flour if it lacks gluten — tends to be wetter (probably all the nut oil), making the clementine cake more moist than I anticipated.
So, go ahead and give it a try. Citrus makes the dessert so tasty that you can serve it to your non-GF friends, and they'll love it.
Unless you make it with tangerines.
Nigella Lawson's Clementine Cake
Courtesy of Clint Page and Dar Webb
Ingredients
5 clementines
6 eggs
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar (Clint uses Splenda Sugar Blend — 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon)
2 1/3 cup ground almonds or almond flour (I used ground almonds the first time, and Bob's Red Mill almond flour the second; Bob's worked much better)
1 heaping tablespoon baking powder
Directions
Boil clementines for 2 hours. You will have to add water as they boil.
After clementines cool, drain well. (Clint halves them and removes stems; I did not.)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Macerate clementines.
Beat all ingredients except clementines. When well-blended, fold in clementines..
Bake in a greased 8-inch spring pan with a circle of waxed paper lining the bottom for 1 hour (I used a greased bundt cake pan).
Allow to cool completely, then remove from pan (your cake will fall apart if you don't).
This article appears in Jan 11-18, 2018.