A Clementine-Date Birthday Cake for my Mom!

 TGIF!!!

  The week is over and it's Friday! This is a very special day because it's my mom's birthday! We live in different states so I'm sad that I'm not where she lives to help celebrate her special day. In her honor, tonight I decided to bake her a birthday cake. She grew up in the central valley of California where they grow beautiful citrus groves, dates, pomegranates, persimmons, and avocados. All of those are some of my favorite things! So I thought I would use some of the California grown specialties and bake this cake I saw recently in Cooking Light magazine. The recipe is interesting because you use unpeeled clementines. However, you just throw them in the food processor at let it do the work. It's so simple! the use of toasted walnut oil is unique and the glaze has the just the right amount of sweetness. This would be great as a dessert for a dinner party and would taste amazingly with coffee for brunch. Or, it could serve as birthday cake for a wonderful mother! Happy Birthday Mom!!

Tips:

 For a cake topping, I dipped 1 clementine in melted white chocolate to then put as a garnish on the cake. I used an actual tangerine and squeezed the whole thing to get the 5 tablespoons of juice. We served our slices with a dollop of whip cream because my mom loves whipped cream!

Clementine-Date Cake

*from Cooking Light magazine

Ingredients

• Cooking spray
• 2  teaspoons  all-purpose flour
• 1/2  cup  walnut halves, divided
• 6  pitted dates
• 2  unpeeled clementines, quartered
• 1/2  cup  packed brown sugar
• 3  tablespoons  unsalted butter, softened
• 2  tablespoons  toasted walnut oil
• 3/4  teaspoon  vanilla extract
• 1  large egg
• 9  ounces  all-purpose flour (2 cups)
• 3/4  teaspoon  baking soda
• 3/8  teaspoon  salt
• 1/2  cup  fat-free buttermilk
• 1/3  cup  chopped pitted dates
• 1  cup  powdered sugar
• 5  teaspoons  fresh tangerine juice

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. Coat a 9-inch round cake pan with cooking spray. Line bottom of pan with parchment paper; coat with cooking spray. Dust with 2 teaspoons flour.

3. Reserve 5 walnuts. Place remaining walnuts, 6 dates, and clementines in food processor; process until ground.

4. Combine brown sugar, butter, and oil in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended. Beat in vanilla and egg.

5. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture; mix after each addition. Add nut mixture and chopped dates; beat at medium speed 3 minutes. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes on a wire rack; remove from pan.

6. Combine powdered sugar and juice, stirring with a whisk until smooth. Drizzle glaze over warm cake; spread to coat top. Top with reserved 5 walnut halves. Cool cake on a wire rack 30 minutes.

I tried to get a picture before it was all gone!