Now, as with any eager gardener I envisage an optimistic future where this tree will be loaded down with so many of these beautiful mandarins that I will be struggling to use them all up, the glut would be so bad that I'd be looking for different things to do with them. So, in preparation for this, I've been dreaming about what I could possibly do with them, and being a sweet tooth, cake is always high on the options list.
Add to the dream a new cookbook, Super legumes by Chrissy Freer, (bought justifiably because we should be eating more legumes, and here's the website recipe if you want to check the recipe out for yourself, chrissyfreer.com.au/superlegumes-recipe-mandarin-chickpea-cake/ ) and the perfect recipe presented itself, Mandarin, pistachio and chickpea cake.
So tonight I whipped one up, well actually two, well actually one normal one which won't fit into any of my tiny cake tins, so it became two. Making the cake was straight forward and pretty fast, except for having to bring the mandarins to a boil, not once, but twice, and then simmer for 45 minutes. Not that it was hard, it's just that when I want to cook something, I want to do it right now and waiting for the boiling part was frustrating. But moving on from that the rest of the mixing was really straight forward.
Then came the cooking part...
Now please don't think this has anything to do with the recipe, this is all about how I can manage to make what should be the simplest part painfully hard. You see, I don't have a normal oven, this house came with a very old gas upright, most of the top cookers work, but nothing below that. As we had originally planned to rip out the old kitchen and replace it with something all new and sparkly (lets save that whole story for another time), I temporarily bought a glass oven. I'm a glass oven advocate, I find them easy to use, perfect for roasts, and I normally do my cakes in them. It's just that it's a little too small to fit some cake tins in, or if you manage to get them in, you can't easily get them out, so I bought tiny cake tins. So, tiny cake tins mean you need to adjust the cooking time, also the oven cooks slightly different to time than a normal oven anyway, normally shorter as it has a fan going, so I figured, smaller tin, half the mix, and a faster oven, 35 minutes instead of 50 would probably be the go.
To say my estimation was out would be an understatement. It looked well cooked from the top, it had even cracked across the top and was slightly crunchy, and sprung back beautifully when poked. I waited for it to cool down (actually I forced myself to do the washing up because I knew once I sat down with a cup of tea and my cake I wouldn't feel like getting up to a pile of dishes) and then cut a sample slice. Disappointment, it was all gooey in the centre, and most disappointing of all, because I wanted to save my wonderful home grown mandarins (after all there's only about 10 of them in total) to eat fresh, I used store bought ones, and these weren't as bitter as that first unripe one of mine, but nowhere near as sweet as the one we savoured yesterday. So unfortunately the cake has a slightly bitter twang which I don't think would be there with a sweeter mandarin.
Right now, the cakes are back in the glass oven, (note to self, next time try using tiny bundt tins as I think being able to have the heat through the centre will make the cooking more even). I'll give them a little longer and that should dry out the overly moist centre and I'm sure we'll all enjoy it for morning tea tomorrow, dusted with a little icing sugar, sprinkled with a smattering of crushed pistachios and served with a little cream on the side. I'm even thinking of a drizzle of mandarin syrup...Yum!
What have you been baking lately and how did it go?
No comments:
Post a Comment