Let Them Eat Healthy: Individual Mandarin & Thyme Upside-Down Cakes with Orange, Mandarin Glaze

Yes this little gem can be yours! This recipe was
inspired by one of my favorite food blogs: Drizzle & Dip, they take amazing food photography and the recipes are so warm and inviting. They have a recipe for clementine upside-down cakes that are so wonderful. I wanted to recreate and personalize this recipe and I wanted to use some healthier ingredients. I switched up some of the flour with wheat germ making for a, corn cake like texture that was very appealing and absolutely delicious. The wheat germ is so good for you and it's one of my favorite flour substitutes because it incorporates into recipes so nicely and virtually unnoticed. I also switched out some of the sugar for molasses which is a nutrient rich sweetener that actually made the cake more moist and gave it a hint of smokiness that was incredible with the mandarins. The orange glaze I
drizzled over the top was a combinations of fresh squeezed orange juice and mandarin juice. The oranges were slightly sweeter and juicier than the mandarins, and I didn't want to use 12 mandarins to get the amount of juice I needed.

I adore herbs in dessert, I often add basil to strawberry shortcakes or lavender to cookies. The herbs create a layered, lightly floral quality that is so pleasing and interesting. I had some beautiful lemon thyme, that was local and organic, so I decided to give it a try in this cake. The result was so unbelievable with the sweet,

tangy mandarin and crumbly, smoky cake. I made 12 of these little guys and my family ate 2 each, they were that good! My mom had these wonderful ceramic dishes that made perfect individual cakes and they retained heat well resulting in very moist cakes with perfectly crusted exteriors. If you don't have these or anything like them, muffin tins work just as well.

Makes 12 mini cakes.

Ingredients

Cake

4 Mandarins, peeled and sliced into rounds, you need 12 slices.
6 tsp black strap, organic molasses, 1/2 tsp for each cake.
6 tsp fair trade, organic raw cane sugar, 1/2 tsp for each cake.
1 Cup dark brown sugar
1 Tbsp mandarin zest
2 Tbsp fresh, organic thyme, leaves only, chopped.
1 Cup pasture raised butter, 2 sticks, room temp.
3/4 Cup organic, unbleached, all purpose flour

1/4 Cup wheat germ
2 tsp baking powder
4 Organic, pasture raised eggs, room temp.
Olive oil, for greasing your cooking vessel.

Glaze

1/4 Cup of fresh squeezed juice, either orange or mandarin or a combo of both.
1/2 Cup organic, fair trade confectioner sugar
1 tsp mandarin zest
1 Tbsp fresh, organic thyme, leaves only, chopped.

Directions

Preheat oven to 355 degrees F. Grease your cooking vessel with a tiny bit of olive oil in each. Drizzle 1/2 tsp of molasses and 1/2 tsp of raw cane sugar in each tin or vessel and place a round of mandarin on top, push down slightly onto the sugar and molasses. Set aside.

In a large bowl cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add in eggs, mandarin zest, sugar and thyme and beat on low till combined.

In a small bowl whisk flour, wheat germ, and baking powder, working out any lumps. Pour flour mixture into the wet ingredients and mix by hand with the whisk till just combined. Do not over mix or you will end up with brick cakes.

Spoon the batter evenly into each tin or vessel, leave in a mound. Don't worry about spreading the batter it will do it when it cooks. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes or until browned and they bounce back when touched.

Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly. Serve on a beautiful plate with a drizzle of the mandarin & orange glaze.