Toasted White Sesame and Candied Kumquat Loaf Cake

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I have a draft post in my Google drive with the working title “boring loaf cakes no more!” Don’t get me wrong - loaf cakes are great. They are easy to prepare, even the most basic kitchen typically has at least one loaf pan, they travel well (hence the French tradition of “gateaux de voyage”) and don’t require a long list of fancy ingredients. And yet, loaf cakes can be an absolute snoozefest.

While there is nothing wrong with rather plain classics like a Madeira cake or a Marble Cake, there is so much more fun to be had with loaf cakes. And with that I present to you today’s offering: a Toasted White Sesame Loaf Cake with Candied Kumquats both inside and on top of the cake.

White sesame because why should black sesame seeds and their dramatic looks have all the fun? Candied kumquat because my idea of fun is to make the most of citrus season by indulging in and cooking and baking with the whole gamut of available citrus fruits. And both together because a while back I had a sesame and mandarine cocktail at @oldboy here in Brussels and I cannot get the genius idea of combining nutty sesame with sweet citrus out of my mind.

And what you get is a cake that is both toothsome and moist, with little bursts of sweet and jammy citrus flavour from the candied kumquats. A cake that is the perfect “countertop cake” - i.e. the kind of cake that stays fresh for several days and that you might as well keep on your countertop since you already know that you’ll be wanting to cut yourself a sliver of cake every time you head to the kitchen.

Toasted Sesame and Candied Kumquat Loaf Cake

Ingredients

For the candied kumquats
250g Kumquats, cut into 3mm thick slices, seeds removed
150g Sugar
300ml Water

For the cake
200g Butter
200g Sugar
4 Eggs
200g Flour
2 tsp Baking powder
150g Toasted white sesame seeds, finely ground
Pinch of Salt
Plus 2/3 of the candied kumquats

For the glaze
125g Powdered sugar
2 tbsp Hot water
1 tsp Toasted sesame seed oil

Directions

Start by making the candied kumquats. Bring the water and sugar to a boil. Once the sugar is dissolved, add the kumquats. Turn the heat down to low and poach the kumquat slices for 10 minutes or until soft.

Remove the kumquat slices with a slotted spoon and set aside. Bring the poaching liquid to a boil and reduce until syrupy. Return the sliced kumquats to the syrup and set aside to cool down.

Once cool remove about 1/3 of the kumquat slices and drain in a fine mesh sieve.

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and grease and line a loafpan with parchment paper.

Cream the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy, ca. 5 minutes. Add the eggs one by one, beating well after each addition.

In a separate bowl briefly whisk together the flour, the baking powder, ground sesame seeds and salt. Stir into the wet ingredients until you have a smooth cake batter.

Lastly, drain the remaining 2/3 of the kumquat and fold into the cake batter. (Keep the syrup for future cocktails, to add to fruit salads or spoon over ice cream, yoghurt, pannacotta etc.)

Pour the cake batter into the prepared pan and bake for ca. 65-70 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. If the cake starts to brown too much, cover with parchment paper while it finishes baking.

Leave the cake to cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing it from the pan, peeling off the parchment paper, and placing it on a wirerack to cool completely.

Whisk together the ingredients for the glaze and pour over the cake. Once the glaze is set (after ca. 1h), arrange the remaining slices of kumquat on the top of the cake.