How delightful to find your next door neighbour on your doorstep with a basket of gorgeous, fresh picked mandarins off their tree.
They are the cutest, smallest mandarins but incredibly juicy and sweet. AND in amongst the mandarins was a recipe sheet for Mandarin Cake!!!
So good to savour these unexpected moments…..
Road testing and baking a new recipe was too tempting. Have tweaked the recipe after the first batch. The cake was delish…. but they also make very yummy muffins.
Note: If you haven’t discovered silicone cupcake moulds……they are the best!!! Look for them at the supermarket. They are reusable and food safe.
Have a few friends unwell at the moment and these cakes were the perfect gift (yummy boost of Vit C 🙂 ).
Mandarin Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1 handfull very small mandarins UNPEELED or 2 - 3 regular mandarins
- 1 tea bag orange and cinnamon herbal tea Optional
Pantry Staples
- 125 g butter
- ¾ cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 cup (heaped) self raising flour
Instructions
- Place orange and cinnamon tea bag in ¼ cup hot water and steep for 10 minutes
- Preheat oven to 180° C
- Place unpeeled mandarin wedges in food processor
- Add 2 tbsp of hot tea (or water if you are not using tea) to the mandarins and process to a pulp - set aside
- Cream butter and sugar then beat in eggs one at a time
- Add salt, flour and mandarin pulp
- Stir to mix well and place in cupcake moulds or cake tin
- Bake whole cake for 40 - 45 minutes or cupcakes for 10 - 15 minutes. Times are based on a fan-forced oven - use a skewer to check they are cooked.
Serving Suggestions
- Just as they are - warm from the oven (my preferred option)OR sieve over some icing sugar and serve cooledOR mix some icing sugar with small amount of mandarin juice/ orange juice and ice them.