Whole Mandarin Cake with Poppy Seed Icing

Cook Time 1 hour plus cooling

Servings makes 8 mini loaves

Ingredients

For the Cake

80g dried coconut shavings

180g mandarins (approximately 2 mandarins), whole with skin on

280g coconut nectar syrup

100ml olive oil

8ml (1½ tsp) apple cider vinegar

3g (½ tsp) salt

8g (2 tsp) vanilla bean paste

230g white spelt flour

3g (¾ tsp) bicarbonate of soda

7g (1¾ tsp) baking powder

5g (1 tsp) mixed spice (cinnamon, coriander seeds, nutmeg, whole mace, whole cloves)

Icing

150g raw cashews

80g coconut nectar 

50g cacao butter, shaved

10ml lemon juice, freshly squeezed

50ml water

15ml coconut oil

4g vanilla bean paste (optional)

10g poppy seeds

To Serve

Dry orange slices

Edible flower

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C. Prepare your choice of cake pan.

In a food processor, grind the dried coconut into flour. Add in the whole mandarins with coconut nectar, olive oil, vinegar, salt and vanilla bean paste. Process until smooth.

Add the spelt flour, spices, baking powder and baking soda to the wet ingredients in the food processor bowl and blitz until just combined.

Spoon the cake batter into the baking paper-lined, oiled pan and cook for 45-50 minutes. Remove from the oven and take the cake out to cool on a rack.

To make the icing, place all ingredients, except the poppyseeds, into a high-speed blender and blitz until super smooth. Keep the poppy seeds aside to stir through by hand once the icing has set in the fridge. If you add the poppy seeds at this stage they will colour the icing and darken it too much.

Pour icing into a container with a lid and put into the fridge to set until firm but not solid, approximately 3-4 hours. If you would like to prepare the icing well ahead of time, simply remove it from the fridge to sit at room temperature for an hour or so, until it is at spreadable throughout and you are ready to ice the cake, add the poppyseeds to the icing and stir Be sure the cake is completely cool before beginning the icing process.

Ice and decorate with your choice of edible flowers or dried orange slices.