1 hr 10 mins
Not Too Tricky
serves 8
About the recipe
The ground almonds in this zingy lemon cake give it a beautiful texture – you'll love it.
Ingredients
120g softened butter, plus a little extra for greasing
120g caster sugar, plus 1 tablespoon extra
4 large free-range eggs, separated
zest and juice of 2 lemons
60g self-raising flour, sifted
120g ground almonds
2 tablespoons milk
75g poppy seeds
50g icing sugar
1 teaspoon mixed spice
crème fraîche, to serve
Top Tip
The butter needs to be very soft, so take it out of the fridge in advance.
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4. Rub a 20cm cake tin with butter.
- Whiz the butter and sugar in a food processor until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, while the motor is running, then the lemon zest and juice.
- When the mixture is nice and smooth, pulse in the flour and almonds and finally the milk. Don't mix it too much – just enough to combine. Spoon the mixture into a bowl, stir in the poppy seeds and put to one side.
- In a very clean bowl, whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Beat in the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar until smooth. Stir a spoonful of egg white into the almond mixture. Add the rest of the egg white and fold together carefully – you don't want to beat the bubbles out of the egg white.
- Spoon into the prepared cake tin and smooth the mix out evenly with the back of a spoon. Place on the middle shelf of your preheated oven and bake for about 45 minutes until cooked through, risen and golden brown.
- When cool, sift the icing sugar and mixed spice over the top of the cake and serve with dollops of crème fraîche.
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