Pre-heat your oven at 180 degrees Celsius.

Melt the butter, add the sugar and mix to a creamy paste.

Once cooled down a bit add the eggs.

Then whisk in the flour and almonds gradually to the buttercream.

Mix everything to a homogeneous paste and put it into a greased or lined cake tin (the tin needs to be large enough to accommodate the mandarin juice once the cake is baked).

Put it in the oven and bake for about 35 to 40 minutes, till golden brown.

While the cake is in the oven put the juice of the mandarins in a pan.

Add the sugar and Cardamon seeds.

Boil gently for about 10 minutes until the juice has thickened, then remove the Cardamon seeds.

Once the cake is finished switch off the oven, take out the cake and pour the mandarin syrup over the cake.

Put it back into the oven, so that the syrup can be gently absorbed while the oven and the cake cool down.

Serve this cake with a dollop of sour cream on the side, and sprinkle over some grated mandarin skin and chopped almonds.

Now enjoy the beautiful flavours and relax with a nice cup of tea.

Wintery greetings from the Mirabeau kitchen!