This decadent clementine cake is no sad gluten-free alternative dessert! It is an Italian-inspired recipe made with almonds, eggs, and clementines that looks super impressive but very easy. It’s gluten-free and dairy-free by nature and everyone will love it, whether they have dietary restrictions or not.
This cake comes together very quickly in a food processor (or a high-powered blender in a pinch). Buy a bag of clementines and boil them all. Freeze the ones you don’t use for this recipe so you’re ready to make another. Trust me, you’ll be glad you have the clementines ready to make this again ASAP! Simple ingredients and very little work is my kind of baking!
You can use a spring form pan, regular cake pan, muffin pan, or mini muffin tins for this recipe. It will make about 36 mini muffins. Just watch the suggestions for bake time in the recipe below. This finished clementine cake also freezes well, just wrap it tightly! Make a few batches ahead for parties or for snacks.
My favorite products for this recipe:
- Cuisinart Food Processor: You want a food processor that has some room to blend this batter in two parts.
- Lily’s Sweet Baking Chocolate Chips: These chocolate chips are a perennial favorite of mine because they have no refined sugar! You can fold these into the batter if you choose, or use them to make a chocolate sauce to drizzle on top.
What can I pair this clementine cake with?
Pair this with my Dairy-Free Hot Chocolate made with Swoon Syrup and you’ve got quite the treat! This cake goes well with chocolate or vanilla ice cream, with chocolate sauce or ganache on top of the cake, or just naked (the cake, I mean). Have it in the morning with your coffee or tea if you want! There’s no wrong way to eat this cake.
Watch me make this super delicious and easy cake on Jana Eats YouTube! Recipe is below.
Super Delicious Clementine Cake | Gluten-Free
Equipment
- Food Processor
- 9-inch Springform Pan or Muffin/Cupcake Pan
- Large Bowl
Ingredients
- 6-7 whole clementines, boiled
- 2 1/3 cups whole almonds, roasted or raw
- 6 whole eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tsp aluminum-free baking powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Optional
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
Optional Topping
- chocolate ganache or syrup
- whipped cream
Method
- Grease and line springform pan with parchment paper or cupcake liners in a cupcake/muffin pan. Preheat oven to 375 F
- Cover clementines with cold water. Boil whole clementines for 45 minutes with lid slightly askew to let out steam.
- Pick out seeds form boiled clementines. Freeze any extras for the next time you want to make this cake!
- Add sugar and baking powder on top of whole almonds in the food processor. (This keeps the almonds from turning into almond butter. )
- Pulse mixture into a flour-like consistency. Dump out the mixture into a large mixing bowl. No need to clean out the food processor super well.
- Add clementines, eggs and vanilla into empty food processor. Blend until smooth.
- Pour clementine/egg mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients. Mix/fold until incorporated with spatula. (Optional) Fold in chocolate chips)
- Pour batter into lined pan.
- Bake. Springform pan cake will take about 45 minutes. Mini muffin tin size will take 12 minutes.
- Let cool, then remove. (Optional) Decorate with chocolate ganache (pictured).
Video
Notes
- Make sure to use a high-powered food processor like this Cuisinart: https://amzn.to/2umcdsf
- I usually buy a big bag of clementines, boil them all, then put the extras in the freezer to make more cakes later!
- You can freeze this cake!
- You can substitute almond meal in this recipe if necessary.