Clementine almond cake, from Jerusalem by Ottolenghi and Tamimi. I always get compliments for this one, and with good reason. When you bite into it, the taste of an almond confection is followed by a rush of clementine juice. You can probably find the recipe online, but I’m not going to copy it here because I think it’s almost worth the price of the cookbook. It’s made almost entirely of almond flour and just a little bit of bread flour, which makes the cake very thick. Almost, in some cases, too thick; I might try it with slightly more bread flour next time. It also uses no leavening, just eggs. You add zest of clementine and lemon to the batter, and then you pour boiled clementine and lemon syrup over the pan immediately upon taking it out of the oven and let it soak into the cake. There is an optional chocolate ganache frosting, but I usually find the chocolate to be a distraction. What you really want here is a Mediterranean medley of citrus and nuts.

(Photo: Orange trees, Aljafería Palace in Zaragoza, Spain.)

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