Oh My Darling Clementine

ClementinesInBowlA couple days before Christmas, my sister and I were having our annual bitch-in about all the kitchen time we were putting in that week, when Lindsay mentioned she was making a Clementine Cake. I assumed this was something akin to a Key Lime Pie. “Sounds great,” I said, mentally dismissing it as way too Florida for a proper holiday dessert, and likely way too complicated for a week with cooking chores so numerous I was already as irritable as Scrooge.

As I am perversely interested in exploring ill-advised recipes, I Googled Clementine Cake: only five ingredients. Right up my crabby alley!

I made the cake and it changed my life. (Okay, well maybe not like say, childbirth did, but, you know.)

‘This cake (from Nigella Lawson) is easy to make and it tastes like Christmas—not Christmas in South Palm Beach, more like in Dickens. Delicious. Plus it has no gluten or dairy, which appeals to my picky daughter, so it’s pretty much a miracle food.

It was dessert for a couple days and also a snack for the guy who came to fix my computer (and stayed for eight hours) as well as for Oliver, the golden retriever, who helped himself  to a piece that was intended for the pool man .

Here’s Nigella’s recipe.

I made it with one orange, one Clementine and one lemon instead of all Clementines because that was what I had on hand and I was NOT going back to the grocery store which, on my last visit, had been like Wal-Mart on Black Friday. Plus, Nigella has been known to mix it up too, using just oranges and lemons. Just add a pinch more sugar.