Michelle’s Mandarin Cake

Name: Michelle’s Mandarin Cake
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 2 h 40 min
Total time: 3 h
Yield: 12
Ingredients: 400 g mandarins; 6 large eggs; 225 g agave syrup; 250 g almond flour; 1 tsp baking powder; 200 g cream cheese; 1 egg white; 50 g agave syrup; 3 tbsp orange juice

Paula July 7, 2018

Servings: 12 Total Time: 3 hrs Difficulty: Beginner

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This wonderfully soft cake surprises you with its rich flavor. Mandarin oranges — still rarely used in baking — give the cake its distinctive character, while the incredibly simple recipe, made with just five ingredients, is easy enough for anyone to make. As a bonus, the cake is both lactose- and gluten-free.

The wonderful Estonian summer is in full swing, and so is the pace of our lives. This year has been, to put it mildly, completely hectic. Without going into every detail, let’s just say that next week we’ll be moving for the second time in six months due to circumstances beyond our control, and just the other day construction on our future home finally began — after plenty of ups and downs. Add to that all sorts of excitement related to work and health, and we’ve reached the point where my husband and I occasionally just look at each other and burst out laughing because, put together, everything feels a bit like an over-the-top dream sequence. But as that famous drink advertisement — or rather, a wise literary character — once said: “There are no better or worse times, only the moment we are living in right now.” I open a sparkling drink and reflect on that for a while.

In July, though, we slowed things down a little and are currently enjoying a few weeks of family vacation, recharging our batteries while visiting my longest-standing friend in Scotland. I’ve known her for over 25 years now, which honestly sounds terrifyingly long… Our ten-day trip was filled with mountain highs and lows, sunshine and rain, castles and lochs, plus an unfortunate car accident involving a rather unpleasant garbage truck driver and a dead duck. The car recovered eventually — sadly, the duck did not.

Looking back, I can honestly say that Scotland has become my favorite travel destination so far. After driving around for a while, we reached the point where we barely even bothered taking photos anymore because every single view deserved to be captured. No matter where you looked, everything was just unbelievably beautiful.

One lovely morning, in the middle of the Highlands, we randomly turned off onto a small roadside path and discovered the most charming little café. Set inside an old church among the fields was a place called Artisan Cafe. It already looked inviting from the outside, but inside we found an exceptionally cozy café-shop run by three lovely women. To my amazement, even out in the middle of nowhere it was possible to get a latte with lactose-free milk (WOW!), and alongside it there was also a dairy-free slice of cake available.

The freshly baked mandarin cake was so unbelievably good that I went to ask what they had put in it. In response, the cook herself — Michelle, a lovely woman in her fifties — came out from the kitchen. She explained that she usually makes the mandarin cake for her niece, who cannot eat dairy products.

Very kindly, Michelle placed her authentic handwritten recipe on the table, scribbled onto a torn notebook page. Bursting with excitement, I explained that I occasionally bake cakes myself and would love to try making it at home, and asked whether she would mind if I shared the recipe. Michelle said she had no objection to sharing it, but being a modest woman, she didn’t want to appear in any photos. So Viljar photographed the other two café ladies instead, and then we continued on our journey.

If any of you happen to visit Scotland soon and want to stop by the café, take a look at the Artisan Cafe website and head toward the Tyndrum area. It’s well worth the trip.

A few days later, we tried making the cake ourselves, and it became my friend’s birthday cake. We did make a few adjustments to the original recipe — replacing sugar with agave syrup and swapping the classic glaze for a cream cheese frosting. It seems we did a pretty good job with it! To save time, I boiled the mandarins the night before, which made things much easier the next day.

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