Yay! It's Wednesday Cake!

Since this is the last Wednesday cake of the year, I saved the best for last:) Here are the most Christmas-y and jolly clementine upside down cakes you'll ever eat! They look beautiful, taste incredibly indulging and on top of it all, they are also guilt free:) They have no butter, no sugar, no flour and no egg, but they taste like they have it all and they look like Christmas on a plate in the best way possible.

So if you're still undecided on your Christmas dessert, I highly recommend giving those jolly cakes a go, as they will make the loveliest (and lightest) finish to your feast....

Clementine Upside Down Cakes
(Inspired by Drizzle and Dip and Sarah's muffin recipe. It's a marriage between the two. Makes about 12-15 cakes)

Ingredients:
- 2 very ripe bananas
- 1 teaspoon of chia seeds
- 1/2 cup maple syrup a dash more for the tray
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
- finely grated zest of 2 small clementines
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or 1/4 of vanilla bean)
- 12-15 slices of peeled clementines (1 slice per cake)

Hot Syrup
- 1/2 cup of clementine juice
- 3 tablespoons of maple syrup

Preheat oven to 180 C / 350 F. Mix chia seeds with 3 tablespoons of water and set aside for about 10 minutes or until it gets all 'jelly'.

Place oats in a food processor and pulse until you have a coarse flour, then transfer to a bowl.

Next, again in a food processor, blend together bananas, maple syrup, applesauce, zest, vanilla extract and the ready chia seeds mix, until well blended.

Now combine the oat flour with the wet mix using a spoon.

Pour just a dash of maple syrup in the the bottom of each cavity of a muffin pan. Add a slice of clementine on top of the maple syrup. Next, evenly measure out the cake batter and dollop onto each clementine (about 3/4 of the way up the pan). Bake for 15-25 minutes, until golden brown.

In the meantime, make the syrup by bringing the juice and the maple syrup to simmer or till it just starts to thicken a bit.

After the cakes are ready, take them out of the oven and using a spatula gently loosen the baked cakes from the mould and tip out onto a cooling rack. Pour the warm syrup over the cakes to allow them to absorb. Let them cool off and enjoy.

You can store them in your fridge for up to 4-5 days and eat them cold or warm. Up to you! Ta-dah!

P.S: Also, clementine candles...
P.P.S: And this nifty little clementine trick.

(Photos and the recipe by exPress-o)