Recipe excerpts from Clean Cakes by Henrietta Inman

Henrietta Inman is a skilled pastry chef and owner of Henrietta Inman Pâtissière and Hen’s Clean Cakes. After gaining a distinction in the Professional Pâtisserie Scholarship at Westminster Kingsway College, London, she worked in a number of award-winning kitchens including the Michelin-starred Lanesborough Hotel, London. Henrietta lives in Suffolk and does baking demonstrations, runs cookery classes and sells at farmers’ markets, pop-ups, and festivals. Her recipes have also been featured in the Sunday Telegraph Stella Magazine and she has a popular blog, www.henscleancakes.com .

Henrietta has just released her first cookbook, Clean Cakes: Delicious Patisserie Made with Whole, Natural and Nourishing Ingredients and Free from Gluten, Dairy and Refined Sugar. (You can enter the EYB contest for your chance to win a copy of the book. The contest is open to Members worldwide.) Henrietta graciously provided us two recipe excerpts from her new cookbook:

Clementine and pomegranate jewel cake (pictured above)

Make this stunning cake during the winter months when clementines are at their sweetest and best. It is a light and fresh alternative to the heavier food around at this time of year. When serving this cake, I like to cut open an extra pomegranate for its seeds, so that each slice is served with a generous amount of pomegranate ‘jewels’.

Serves 8-10

Clementine cake
450 g (1 lb) clementines (about 5)
4 eggs
150 g (5¼ oz/scant 1¼ cups) coconut sugar
225 g (8 oz/2 cups) ground almonds (almond meal)
1 tsp baking powder

Pomegranate jewel syrup
120 ml (4 fl oz/½ cup) 100% pomegranate juice, not from concentrate
30 g (1 oz/1½ tbsp) raw honey
1 tbsp pomegranate molasses
1 large pomegranate, about 450 g (1 lb), plus extra seeds for serving

Cook the clementines by placing them in a lidded saucepan with cold water to cover. Bring to the boil, turn down to a low heat and simmer for 2 hours, topping up the water when necessary, until the fruit is soft and a skewer pierces it easily. Drain and leave to cool.

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4. Grease the bottom and sides of a 23 cm (9 inch) springform ‘crown’ cake tin. Line the base with baking parchment.

Cut the cooled clementines in half, remove any pips and then blitz the whole fruits, including the skin, in a food processor until a smooth pulp forms.

Whisk the eggs and sugar together, then mix in the ground almonds (almond meal) and baking powder with a wooden spoon or spatula. Then add the clementine pulp to the rest of the ingredients, folding lightly in until well combined.

Pour into the tin and bake for 20 minutes, rotate the tin and bake for a further 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. If the top is looking a bit too brown, reduce the temperature to 170°C/325°F/ Gas Mark 3 for the last 10 minutes of baking. Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely in the tin.

To make the pomegranate jewel syrup, in a saucepan bring the pomegranate juice, honey and pomegranate molasses to a boil, turn down the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat then break open the pomegranate over the saucepan, letting the seeds and juices fall into the syrup. Stir well.

When the cake has cooled, remove it from the tin and transfer to a serving plate. Pour over the syrup and seeds, letting them fall into the middle of the cake, then slice and serve with extra pomegranate seeds. Keeps for up to five days in a sealed container, preferably in the fridge. It freezes well too.

NOTES

If you don’t have a springform ‘crown’ cake tin you can make this in any 20-23 cm (8-9 inch) regular round springform cake tin.

Pomegranate molasses is made from the concentrated juice of pomegranates and has a brown-red hue. It is packed with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants and has a tangy and slightly bitter flavour. Mixed with a little honey it makes a sweet and fruity glaze or syrup for cakes as shown here, especially complementing citrus.

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Blueberry lemon mousse cake with scented geranium flowers (shown on the cookbook cover)

Whipped coconut cream lifts up this dessert to amazingly light and gorgeously smooth dimensions. It is rich and fresh at the same time, rounded out with the otherworldlyscents of the fresh scented geranium flowers.

Serves 10-12

Filling
1 x 400 ml (14 fl oz) can coconut milk
150 g (5¼ oz/1⅛ cup) cashew nuts
325 g (11½ oz/scant 2¼ cups) blueberries
Finely grated zest of 2 lemons
100 ml (3½ fl oz/⅓ cup plus 1 tbsp) lemon juice
110 g (4 oz/⅓ cup) raw clear honey
¼ tsp Himalayan pink salt
75 g (2¾ oz/⅓ cup) coconut oil

Vanilla base
90 g (3 oz/scant ⅔ cup) pitted Medjool dates
¼ tsp Himalayan pink salt
1 vanilla pod (bean), split lengthways and seeds scraped out
70 g (2½ oz/¾ cup plus 2 tbsp) desiccated coconut
35 g (1¼ oz/¼ cup) hemp seeds
30 g (1 oz/generous 2 tbsp) coconut oil

Decoration
150 g (5¼ oz/1 cup) blueberries
Scented geranium flowers or other edible flowers

The night before making this, place the can of coconut milk in the fridge. Line the base and sides of a 23 cm (9 inch) springform or loose-bottomed cake tin with baking parchment.

Soak the cashew nuts in 300 ml (10½ fl oz/1¼ cups) of filtered water with ½ tsp of Himalayan pink salt for 3-4 hours.

To make the base, in a food processor chop up the dates with the salt and vanilla seeds to form a ball-like paste. Add the coconut and hemp seeds and blitz to combine. Melt the coconut oil, add to the mix and process until everything is combined. Turn out into the prepared tin and press down to form an even base. Refrigerate.

In a blender, process 150 g (5¼ oz/1 cup) of the blueberries, the lemon zest and juice, honey and salt to form a purple juice. Drain and rinse the cashew nuts thoroughly, then add them to the blueberry juice and process until smooth.

Open the can of coconut milk and remove the cream on the top, which will have set overnight. You need 240 g (8½ oz/1 cup), so use some of the thinner milk from the bottom of the can if necessary. Whip up the coconut cream in a freestanding mixer or using an electric whisk, until smooth and thick.

Melt the coconut oil and blend it into the blueberry juice and then add everything in the blender to the whipped coconut cream. Lightly whisk everything once more until just combined. If you overmix, the cake won’t be as light as it should be. Fold in the remaining 175 g (6 oz/scant 1¼ cups) of blueberries then pour the mix over the prepared base. Refrigerate for about 2 hours until firm.

When set, demould. Decorate with blueberries and scented geranium flowers. Serve immediately. Keeps well in the fridge for up to five days. 

Clean Cakes: Delicious pâtisserie made with whole, natural and nourishing ingredients and free from gluten, dairy and refined sugar by Henrietta Inman (Jacqui Small, £20) is out now, available at QuartoKnows.com.