This cake is amazingly simple to make and amazingly good to eat. The cake also is fairly inexpensive to make. You will need a can of mandarin oranges. Most of the other ingredients you probably have on hand. The cake comes out of the air fryer light and moist, and your kitchen will be filled with the incredible aromas of cake and citrus. You can serve the cake warm or at room temperature. We like the cake "as is," but, if you want to dress it up, a fluff of whipped cream would work well. Enjoy!
Mandarin Orange Cake -- Makes 1 Small Cake
2 tablespoons of melted butter
2 tablespoons of canola oil
1/3 cup of sugar
1 large egg
Zest of a clementine or half an orange
2/3 cup of canned mandarin orange segments (1/2 of a large can)
2/3 cup of the juice from the mandarin oranges
1/4 cup of plain yogurt (fat free is fine)
1 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/4 cup of powdered sugar
2 tablespoons of orange marmalade or apricot jam
1 tablespoon of water or mandarin orange juice
Spritz a 6-inch round (and 2 inches in height) cake pan with cooking spray. Cut a piece of baking parchment to fit the bottom of the pan (and the sides, if you're worried about removing the cake from your pan). Spritz the parchment with cooking spray. Arrange the mandarin oranges on the bottom of the pan, on top of the baking parchment. Sprinkle about half of the clementine or orange zest on top of the oranges. In a medium bowl or measure whisk together well the butter, oil, sugar, egg, remaining clementine or orange zest, the mandarin orange juice, and the yogurt. Add the flour, baking powder, salt, and powdered sugar to a sifter or sieve and sift about half of the flour mixture over the batter. Whisk the flour mixture into the wet mixture until combined. Sift the remaining flour mixture over the batter, then whisk it into the batter until smooth. Pour the batter over the mandarin oranges in the pan. Air fry the batter at 320 degrees for 25-35 minutes or until the cake just begins to pull away from the sides of the pan and a pick inserted in the center of the cake comes out with no wet batter attached (crumbs are fine/likely). Let the cake cool in its pan for about 10 minutes. Place a plate over the top of the cake pan and flip the cake out onto the plate. Remove the parchment from the top/sides of the cake. Mix the marmalade/jam with the water/juice and microwave the mixture for about 20 seconds until warm. Brush/spoon the jam over the top of the cake (on top of the oranges). Serve the cake warm or let it cool to serve it.
