Today I decided to bake us a cake. I normally like baking a cake at the weekend. It seems the perfect time and as today was a rather blustery and rainy day, a delicious cake was just the ticket to make a gloomy day all the better.
I found a delicious looking recipe in a Tamasin Day Lewis cookery book of mine, entitled, "Supper for a Song." Its filled with lovely recipes that are economical and delicious. I think Tamasin is a fabulous cook and largely unknown outside of our borders. I have all of her cookbooks and they never fail to inspire me.
This book is one of my favourites, with decadent recipes and beautiful photographs. Not sure how economical some of the recipes are, but they are all taste-tempting at any rate and she does manage to squeak everything she can from a roast chicken.
We totally adore almond cakes . . . . cakes where they use some ground almonds to replace some of the flour. We love the density it brings to a cake . . . you grind the almonds yourself for this cake, marcona almonds . . . lovely and almondy. So fresh. If you don't have marcona almonds you could use any blanched almond, and in a pinch, already ground almonds, but you really need to try it this way once. Trust me on this.
We also totally adore jam in any way shape or form, and this cake has a beautiful glaze of jam. You can use whatever kind of jam you like. I used sour cherry today because that is what I had and cherry flavours go very well with almond.
The cake turned out to be a truly beautiful cake with a tender and moist crumb, just a bit dense . . . the jam gets warmed with a bit of water and spooned over the warm cake . . . it soaks in a teensy beensie bit and dribbles a bit over the edges. In short. Perfect.
*Jam Glazed Almond Cake*
Makes one 8 inch cake Printable Recipe
We are great fans of nut cakes in this house and we adore jam. This cake combines two of our great loves in a most delicious way. Adapted from a recipe by Tamasin Day Lewis.
300g of blanched Marcona almonds (scant two cups)225g of butter, softened (1 cup)225g of caster sugar (19 TBS or a scant 1 1/4 cup)
the finely grated zest of one unwaxed lemon1 tsp natural almond extract1/2 tsp vanilla paste3 large free range eggs120g of plain flour (1 cup minus 4 TBS)1 heaped tsp of baking powder
To finish:a heaped dessertspoon of your favorite jam2 tsp water
Preheat the oven to 160*C/325*F/ gas mark 3. Butter and flour an 8 inch spring form pan. Grind the almonds in a food processor until they are just a little coarser than fine grind. You want some texture.
Cream the butter and sugar with an electric whisk until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the lemon zest and extracts. Fold in the ground almonds. Beat in the eggs, one at a time until well blended. Sift the flour and baking powder together. Fold this mixture into the beaten mixture with a metal spoon. Spoon into the prepared baking tin and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for about 55 minutes, or until a cocktail stick inserted in the center comes out clean. (Tamasin suggests checking it at 50 minutes.) Allow the cake to cool completely in the pan on a wire rack before removing onto a plate.
Melt the jam with the water in a small pan over low heat, or in the microwave for about 35 seconds, whisking well to combine. It should just be warm. Pour this mixture over top of the cake and spread it around.
Our favorite jam flavours: Apricot, cherry, strawberry, blueberry. In short, any flavour!
Lashings of thick cream or ice cream would not go amiss with this. Nor would custard or ice cream. All are fabulous. I do hope you will bake this lovely cake. Its a real treat! Bon appetit!
