walter mitty clementine birthday cake

It was Camden's birthday on Friday ... To celebrate I made him this clementine cake from one of our all-time favorite movies, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. It was really good, in fact it's almost gone today, only two days later.

Our family is so lucky to have a stud like Camden around. He is a wonderful husband and father ... We all love him so much! Happy birthday, Camden!

This clementine cake comes from, Cathy Merenda, who worked on set while they were making The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, and according to her, this recipe is the exact one used in the movie.

For the cake you will need:
5 small clementines
6 eggs
1 1/4 cups of sugar
2 1/4 cups of ground almonds
1 teaspoon of baking powder

For the glaze you will need:
2 cups of confectioners sugar (I used more like 3 - 3 1/2)
1/2 cup of clementine juice
3 tablespoons of softened butter

For the candied clementines (on top) you will need:
3 clementines
2 cups of sugar
1 cup of water

To make the cake:
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter and line an eight or nine inch springform pan with parchment.
- Poke each clementine three to four times with a knife. Put the clementines in a microwave safe bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Microwave on high for three to four minutes. Cool slightly, then dump clementines into a food processor and process until smooth (I didn't have a food processor so I used a good blender instead).
- In a large bowl, beat eggs and sugar until lightened in color and doubled in size, about five minutes.
- Cool in the pan on rack. Once the cake is cold, remove from pan and peel off parchment paper if any.
- Top with glaze and candied clementines.

To make the glaze:
- Mix all ingredients in a bowl until well combined, adjusting sugar and juice as needed. Glaze should be loose but thick.

To make the candied clementines:
- Slice clementines very thinly.
- Put sugar and water in a heavy bottomed pan on medium heat. Stir until sugar is dissolved.
- Add clementines to sugar mixture and simmer on low for fifteen to twenty minutes (watch carefully as it will burn easily)
- Pull clementines from sugar mixture and lay on parchment paper until cool.