I’ve started planning my Christmas menu early this year and this recipe came about by the desire to not have a traditional Christmas fruitcake but also fancying an alternative to the chocolate cake I’m planning to bake 🙂

Clementines always remind me of Christmas. The smell, the juiciness and the vibrant colour and I wanted to capture that in a cake. Lemon drizzle cake is one of my favourite bakes so it didn’t really require a massive amount of effort to think this one up.

I’m going to be sharing a few recipes using clementines so if you end up with a big box leftover this winter you can be sure to find ways to use them up.

Clementine Drizzle Cake

You will need:

For the cake:

225g margarine or butter ( I used Flora baking block)
225g caster sugar
275g self-raising flour
4 medium free range eggs
60ml of whole milk
Zest of 3 clementines and 1 lemon
2 tsp baking powder

Drizzle topping:

175g sugar (granulated)
juice of 3 clementines and 1 lemon

Preheat your oven to gas mark 4 and grease a 23cm round cake tin ( I use cake release spray which is so easy and effective)
Combine all of your cake ingredients and blend in a food mixer for 3 minutes until smooth or beat well with a wooden spoon.

Bake for 25 -30 minutes or until golden and will spring back when pressed lightly.

Turn onto a wire rack to cool slightly. Mix your drizzle topping together. When still warm to the touch but not hot slowly spoon your topping over the cake being sure to get an even cover. Leave to cool completely until you have a crunchy sugary top.

I also added some candied clementine peel to my cake to decorate. I will be posting the recipe for candied peel later this week.

Now try not to eat it all at once. This would be lovely on a Christmas Day in the afternoon with mulled wine a cuppa tea.