Sheila's Mandarin Orange Cake

Directions

Heat the oven to 170C/Gas 3.

Line a cake pan with greaseproof paper.

Cream the butter and sugar, until ribbons form. This will take quite a while – you are better off leaving the work to a processor.

Add the eggs gradually, beating well after each addition.

Add the flour all at once, and beat well, then slowly add the orange juice, until it is incorporated.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin, and bake for about 30 minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. (Slow is best, so don’t be afraid to cook it longer. If it starts to brown too much on the top, cover loosely with a sheet of buttered kitchen foil.)

Leave the cake in the tin on a wire rack to cool, then gently remove the cake from the tin.

Cream the butter and the icing sugar with a fork adding the orange juice a few drops at a time until a smooth spreading consistency is achieved.

You may have to use slightly more or less icing sugar to achieve a good spread – depending on humidity.

Note:

The mandarins are coming into season now, but when they are not available, she uses either canned mandarins or just fresh Valencia oranges off our own trees.

You could also use clementines or tangerines for this recipe.

The sponge cake is a simple sponge with the juice and zest of three mandarins or 1 large orange.

The topping is a thick mandarin flavoured butter cream with mandarin slices arranged around the top of the butter cream icing.

It tastes delicious and the mandarin flavour is not too overpowering.

If you want a stronger mandarin or orange flavour, simply add more juice and zest – but remember to compensate for the extra liquid in the sponge mix.