How to make a seasonal celebration cake

At Christmas, it’s always good to have an easy-to-assemble show-stopping dessert up your sleeve – and Jamie’s Simple celebration cake from 5 Ingredients Mediterranean ticks all those boxes. Plus, of course, it only uses 5 ingredients – winner!

Celebrating the flavours of the Amalfi coast with beautiful lemon curd, we’ve used seasonal clementines in place of strawberries, giving a delicious St Clements vibe. It makes a really special centrepiece with minimal effort.

And, to make things even easier, we’ve broken it down into 5 simple steps…

PANETTONE, RICOTTA & LEMON-CURD RIPPLE, CLEMENTINES

SERVES 8-10

TOTAL: 10 MINUTES

INGREDIENTS

1 x 750g panettone

6-8 clementines

500g ricotta cheese (cold)

1 tablespoon runny honey

2 heaped tablespoons lemon curd

 HOW TO MAKE PANETTONE

 

1. Unwrap the panettone from its packaging and slice off 3 chunky rounds, roughly 2.5cm thick (save the rest of the panettone for lovely breakfasty things).
2. Finely grate the zest of 2 clementines, then squeeze the juice. Add the juice to a bowl and stir in 1 teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil, then spread this over one side of each of the three rounds and leave to soak in.
3. Whiz the ricotta in a food processor with the clementine zest and honey until smooth, then divide between the rounds and ripple each with lemon curd (give the lemon curd a stir in the jar first, to loosen).
4. Peel and slice the remaining clementines (leaving a few pretty slices for decorating), then arrange over two of the layers.
5. Stack up the layers, decorating the top with the reserved clementine slices. Chill in the fridge until you’re ready to serve.

TIP: TAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL

If you feel like you want to do something exciting, pour a quarter of a jar of honey into a pan and place over a medium heat. Leave to bubble away until you have a dark caramel (never touch it!). Allow to cool for 5 minutes, then carefully dip clementine segments into it, holding each above the pan so the caramel drips down to create wisps of spun sugar. Place upside down on greaseproof (so they don’t stick) to set, then use to decorate your cake. To clean the pan effortlessly, pour in 2.5cm of water, pop the lid on and simmer for 5 minutes.

Adapted from 5 Ingredients Mediterranean by Jamie Oliver, published by Penguin Random House © Jamie Oliver Enterprises Limited (2023, 5 Ingredients Mediterranean)