Mini Clementine Cakes

I was working on a Lunar New Year menu and browsing Woks of Life (an excellent Chinese cooking blog if you’re interested!) when I came across these. Given that I already had the ingredients and that a citrus dessert sounded like a perfect winter treat, I decided to add these in with our more traditional Lunar New Year meal. (We made Lion’s Head meatballs. We didn’t quite get it right on the first time, so no blog post to share, but inspiration to try again! The meatballs were excellent; the balance of the rest of the dish wasn’t. Back in our early blogging days, I probably would’ve still shared since the meatballs were so good, but we’re a lot more selective with what we post these days.) But these little cakes (really, something between a cupcake and a muffin) were delicious! Easy to make and a perfect winter treat! Maybe not a traditional Lunar New Year dessert, but it worked for us.

Mini Clementine Cakes

(Just barely adapted from Woks of Life)

Ingredients: 

• Cake
  • 1 1/2 cups AP flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 7 tbsp buttermilk
  • 4 clementines, juices & zested
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 tbsp orange liqueur
  • 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
  • 3/4 cup turbinado sugar
  • 2 eggs, room temperature
• Glaze
  • 1/2 cup powdered sugar
  • 2 tsp orange liqueur
  • 1/4 tsp vanilla
  • Water
  • Fresh lemon zest (optional)
  • An additional clementine, segmented (optional)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine first four dry ingredients in a bowl. Combine the next four wet ingredients in another bowl. Set aside.
3. Place butter and sugar in a large bowl. Cream together with a hand mixer. Next, add the eggs. Now add the contents of the two other bowls in alternating fashion. Start with ~1/3 of the dry ingredients, followed by ~1/2 of the wet ingredients, continuing until all have been added. Beat until well-combined.
4. Spoon the batter into a greased or lined muffin tin.
5. Bake for 18-22 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
6. Allow to cool completely.
7. Whisk together the glaze ingredients, adding water a few drops at a time until the consistency is to your liking. Drizzle over the cakes. Top with lemon zest and/or a clementine segment.

Yields 12 mini cakes