I found another appetising cake in Le Cordon Bleu’s Chocolate Bible, Genovese Almond Cake. Not too heavy on the chocolate, but lots of almond flavour, the combination of which is very good indeed.
The recipe called for an 18cm square cake tin, but mine is 20cm. So this time, unlike my last bake, I increased the ingredients by 20% and cooked for a couple of minutes longer. I all worked out very well, as the cake looks and tastes wonderful, in my opinion.
It is a simple cake to make, particularly if you buy in the almond paste. I made my own which is simple enough and ensures the right proportion of almonds and flavouring in the paste. Both the latest recipes I have baked have used melted butter, which is mixed into the batter as the last item. I quite like that idea, and will be trying it in a few more recipes.
Ingredients – I show the amounts I used, rather than those in the original recipe.
Sliced Almonds(I used flaked)
72g unsalted butter
5 eggs
240g almond paste
24g plain flour, sifted
12g unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
3/4 tsp baking sofa, sifted
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180C/355F.
Butter a 20cm square cake tin and scatter the almonds inside.
Melt the unsalted butter and set aside.
Beat the eggs into almond paste, one at a time, and continue whisking until the mixture is pale and has thickened, so that it falls from the whisk in ribbons without breaking.
Fold in the flour, cocoa powder and baking soda.
Add the melted butter.
Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake in the oven for 27 minutes, or until a skewer poked in the middle comes out clean.
Turn out onto a rack to cool.