Mandarin Syrup Cake

Many people complain about the depleted bounty of fruit during the winter months. I choose to revel in the variety of apples, pears and citrus fruits that enter the markets at this time of year. One of my favourite fruits, the mandarin, is available from April and during the cooler weather I delight in eating as many of these delicately flavoured globes as I can get my hands on. I have however been guilty over the past few weeks of buying mandarins and forgetting about them which caused me a little despair when I looked in the back fridge yesterday and realised that I had more mandarins than I could possibly work my way through in the next five days until I go away to Melbourne.
Thus the Mandarin Syrup Cake came to life.
Sometimes happiness in life is taking a good look at the bounty and beauty all around you and making the most of  it. That's where the sweetness is.


The photo really doesn't do this moist cake much justice

 Mandarin Syrup Cake

Ingredients
3/4 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 egg
2 tablespoons sour cream
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
3/4 cup plain flour
3/4 cup wholemeal plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
3 mandarins, zest only

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius and line an 8 x 4 inch loaf tin with baking paper.
2. In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar, then stir in egg and sour cream, followed by the milk and vanilla essence.
3. In another bowl mix together flours, zest and baking powder, I used a whisk to make sure there were no lumps.
4. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture, beat until smooth.
5. Pour batter into lined tin and place in the oven.
6. Bake until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean, about 45 minutes to an hour.
7. Remove from oven and spoon glze (recipe follows) over warm cake.
8. Allow to cool in pan for about 5 minutes and then cool on wire rack still in paper.
9. Store in an airtight container. I left it wrapped in the baking paper to maintain the moisutre of the cake.

Glaze: Mix together 2 tablespoons of mandarin juice and 1/4 cup of caster sugar.

The cake is now safely tucked into my bag ready for sharing at work tomorrow and I only have about 2 kilograms of mandarins to finish in the next three days!

This beautiful blossom certainly stood out in the
 grey rainy morning on my way to work today.