Clementine Cake?

We took the kids to see "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" last night.  What a great movie!  We all liked it a lot.  Funny, upbeat, real, good story with a great ending - I highly recommend it.  Central to part of the plot was this thing called a Clementine Cake...?  I'd never heard of it.  Looked like a single layer of a round cake with sliced oranges on top...maybe like an upside down cake?  I honestly thought it was made up for the quirky characters in the movie, and let it go at that. 

Then my husband text me from work this afternoon, "Are you gonna make a clementine cake?  You can use the cuties."  We have cuties on our kitchen table, delivered by a neighbor.  My kids like them, but can never eat all that she brings over before they start turning bad.  So, my husband was thinking of that cake?  And, he wanted me to make it?  Although I bake all of the time, it is very rare that my husband actually requests something. (I like to think this is because he is happy with everything I bake)  I was on it.  Pinterest is my friend, and within a matter of seconds, I was staring at a variety of clementine cake recipes.  I went with the one that looked most like the one we saw in the movie, and whipped it up pretty quickly.

Clementine Cake

Cake Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
4 eggs, room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoon grated clementine zest
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons fresh squeezed clementine juice (I needed about 7 clementines total to make the cake and glaze)

Glaze Ingredients:
1 1/2 – 2 cups powdered sugar
4 tablespoons fresh squeezed orange juice
grated clementine zest

Directions:
Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. Butter the paper and set aside> (I never use the parchment paper - not sure if it really makes a difference - my cakes don't stick because I wait for them to cool completely to invert the pan.  And, I always put the pan side of the cake down on the plate.)

Cream the butter and sugar well for several minutes, until it is very pale and thick.

Add the eggs one by one, beating well after each addition, then add the zest. (I did not add the zest, because I don't like zest in anything - it's a texture thing, not a taste thing.)  Add the flour, baking powder and salt all at once, and beat well, then slowly add the clementine juice until it is incorporated.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin, and bake for 35-40 minutes – or until an inserted skewer comes out clean (If it starts to brown too much on the top, cover loosely with a sheet of foil.)

 Allow cake to cool in pan for 15-20 minutes on a wire rack. Then invert onto a plate, remove the parchment paper and allow to cool completely before glazing.

To make the icing, stir the clementine juice into the icing sugar until you have the right spreading consistency. Using a skewer, dowel, or toothpick, poke holes through entire cake to allow glaze to seep down into it. Pour the icing onto the cake and spread with a spatula or butter knife, allowing the icing to drip down the sides of the cake.

I served it with fresh whipped cream (you can see the silver canister I use in the background). 

I personally didn't really like the cake...not sweet enough or orangy enough for me.  (Maybe because I did not add the zest called for in the recipe.)  However, all of my family loved it, saying it was sweet enough.  My son compares it to a pound cake.

It may taste good with some coffee in the morning...I'll give it one more try;)