You know those moments where you just feel like baking something, and you kind of don’t want to grocery shopping, and you start hunting around in your kitchen cupboards for something- anything- that might give you inspiration?

Yeah. I had one of those moments this past weekend.

Lucky for me there was a tin of mandarin oranges lurking at the back of one of my shelves. It screamed to be used, so after a quick Internet search (and a search around my kitchen), I came up with my own version of the recipe originally found here.

The result? Sunshine in a pan. It’s dense and moist and actually not that sweet, so if you feel like it deserves some icing, I won’t stop you. Or make it many times over and tell me which way you like it best. I know I’m planning on it!

Honey Mandarin Orange Cake (serves 8-10)

1 c. butter, softened

3/4 c. liquid honey

4 eggs

3 c. flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 can mandarin oranges (about 234g, or 8.2 oz.)

1/2 c. vanilla yogurt

2 tbsp orange zest

Preheat your oven to 350F. In large bowl, cream together butter and honey. (B’s Tip: This will be scary and lumpy but it’s totally ok- it will work out fine. Trust me.) Add eggs and mix until fully incorporated. In a second bowl, mix together flour, baking power and salt. Slowly add to the wet ingredients until fully incorporated.

Strain juice from tin of mandarins reserving both juice and mandarins. Add juice to the batter, as well as the yogurt. Mix until well incorporated. Macerate remaining mandarin slices with fork and add to batter along with orange zest.

Pour batter into a greased 8-inch round pan and bake for 1 hour until top is golden and a toothpick in the center comes out clean. Let stand in pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

I can’t even begin to imagine all the ways you can add to this recipe, or the ways in which you could serve it. It would be great with ice cream or yogurt over top, or make your own icing and have fun adding other citrus flavors like pineapple, or mango. With a summery fun cake like this, anything goes!

Happy baking!

B

Update: I’m so honored that the folks over at the Easy Recipes blog made their own version of the cake here. It’s a great resource for converting any recipe into the measurement of your choice. And they didn’t even pay me to say that.

Baking with B appears every other Monday on the Keeping Busy with B Blog. Find out why I like baking so much here. For more of my baking, click here. And for even more recipe inspiration, check out my Pinterest full of food eye candy that will have you licking your computer. Promise.