Almond Cake

Categories: cake, nicola lamb

Ingredients:

• 160g Unsalted butter, soft and at room temp 20c
• 200g Caster sugar
• 125g Ground almonds*
• 3g Fine sea salt (kosher salt or flaky also works)
• 160g - about 3 Whole eggs,
• ¼ tsp almond extract
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 80g Plain flour
• 4g Baking powder

Steps:

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line an 8 inch round tin. Cream together the butter, sugar, almonds and salt together on medium speed for 45 seconds - 1 minute until aerated. Scrape down the side of the bowl. Separate the eggs, putting the whites into a large bowl. Mix the yolks into the butter/sugar mixture. Sift over the plain flour and baking powder and mix until the flour is about 80% incorporated. It will look more like biscuit or shortcrust pastry dough at this point. Whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form then fold, in two goes, into the cake batter until no streaks of egg white remain. Scrape batter into the prepared tin, smooth it then bake for 30-35 minutes or until the cake is light golden, springs back when pressed and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Move onto a rack and when the tin is cool enough to handle, remove and leave to cool completely. Once cool, you can dust with icing sugar if desired. Serve in thick slices, topped with cream and fruit as you desire.