Recipe : French Almond Cake

Our pantry is a little bit strangely designed and jammed with stuff, so I often find myself buying a new ingredient and then finding another one wodged in a box in the pantry.  This is how I found myself with two half bags and one full bag of almond meal.

The beauty of Google is that you can just type in "recipes with almond meal", and you get a bunch of recipes.  I had a look at a few and the decided on this one, mainly because I had everything I needed in the house already and it looked incredibly simple.  My favourite recipes involve throwing everything into one bowl, giving it a mix, and then whacking it into a greased tin - this is the recipe for that!

Double bonus?  It makes your house smell amazing!

I pinched the recipe from Happy Home Baking, and they pinched it from Easy Cake by Linda Collister.  Happy Home Baking tweaked the original recipe a bit, and I tweaked it again so I could get rid of the remnants of a bag of cinnamon/vanilla sugar.  I guess that's how recipes evolve ...

Let's cook!  As usual, my comments in italics.

French Almond Cake

• 110g unsalted butter left to soften (I always use salted butter because I prefer it)
• 150g caster sugar
• 3 large eggs, lightly beaten (I forgot to beat mine)
• 90 ground almonds (almond powder/almond meal)
• 40g self raising flour (or 40g plain flour + half a teaspoon of baking powder + pinch of salt)
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon flaked almonds for sprinkling (I didn't measure mine, I just sprinkled until I liked the look of it)
• Icing sugar for dusting (I sprinkled on a mix of cinnamon/vanilla sugar that I found in the pantry BEFORE I put it into the oven)

1. Pre-heat oven to 180c.
2. Grease and flour the sides of 20cm pan, line base with parchment paper (I only greased with that melty butter stuff you use for frying, and I didn't flour or line with parchment paper.  I also used a loaf pan instead of a 20cm pan.)
3. Place butter, sugar, eggs, almond powder, flour, milk, vanilla extract in a bowl and beat with mixer or whisk.
4. When light and fluffy, spoon into prepared pan and spread batter evenly.
5. Sprinkle flaked almonds over the top (this is where I sprinkled the mix of sugars as well)
6. Bake at 180c for 30-35 minutes, or until the sponge springs back when pressed (I inserted a knife to see if it came out clean).  NOTE - cover top with foil about 15 minutes into the baking to prevent the top from over-browning.
7. Run a thin bladed knife around the sides of the pan to loosen the cake, then turn out onto a wire rack and let cool.  Dust with icing sugar before serving.  I'd already sprinkled with the sugar mix before baking, so I didn't dust with anymore sugar.