Almond Cake

I saw a wonderful looking cake for an Almond and Lemon Cake.

The recipe involved taking flaked almonds and roasting them and then grinding them to use as the base for the cake. In my version I vary it slightly, in so much as I just used ground almonds, unroasted.  But I did roast some flaked almonds for the top.

I also had to convert from cups etc to metric measurements as that tends to be more precise in measuring.

The recommendation was to beat the eggs in a food processor, rather than in a stand mixer, as it would make the eggs less frothy and full of air than it the stand mixer.  I followed that instruction and everything turned out fine.

The cake, rich with almonds, also has a hint of lemon due to the inclusion of some zest.  It also has a nice crunchy top to complement a very moist cake.  

I can’t claim that this is the best almond cake, but I can confirm that it is truly delicious.  Since it is not complicated and the most time is in the baking I recommend this recipe to anyone.

Ingredients:

• 150g ground almonds
• 35g flaked almonds, roasted until lightly coloured brown
• 96g plain flour
• 250g caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 4 medium eggs(large in USA)
• 71g melted unsalted butter
• 80ml vegetable oil
• 3/4 tsp almond extract
• Zest of 2 lemons, with 1 tsp of it set aside for the topping
• 20g granulated sugar for the topping

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 150C/130C Fan/300F.
2. Grease a 23cm/9 inch springform cake tin and line the base with baking paper.
3. In a bowl mix together the flour, ground almonds, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
4. In a food processor beat the egg with the caster sugar until mixed together and a pale yellow colour(about 2mins).
5. Add the melted butter, oil, almond extract and the lemon zest(apart from the teaspoon held back for later) and process until combined.
6. Add the flour mixture to the food processor and pulse for a couple of seconds 5 times.  The mixture will have just about combined.  Do not over-mix.
7. Pour the batter into the cake tin and sprinkle the roasted flaked almonds over the top.
8. Mix the remainign lemon zest into the granulated sugar and then sprinkle over the top of the batter and almonds.
9. Bake in the oven for 55-65 minutes, until a skewer in the centre comes out clean.
10. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes, then run a thin knife around the edge to ensure it is not sticking to the tin and remove from the tin, placing on a wire rack to cool completely.