Literally and figuratively...
The recipe I used came from Nigella Lawson's How to Be a Domestic Goddess. As I've mentioned before, I have hit and miss luck with her recipes, yet I still dig in to her books on occasion.
This time around, the cake was...really good. But I'm not sure if it came out quite as I expected. For all her lovely language, I sometimes wish for and occasional dollop of concrete description.
In this case, the recipe calls for ground almonds. That's all well and good but—how finely ground?
The cake that came out of my oven was thick with bits and pieces of nut that made for a toothsome texture, but not quite the "damp, dense" texture she mentions in the book.
I'm curious if grinding the almonds finer would create not only the texture she describes, but would make it more cake-like (rather than torte-like).
In the end, this is just curiosity speaking as it did taste really lovely. She "mumured raspberries" and I followed suit with the fresh raspberry sauce (2 pints fresh berries broken down with sugar and lemon) that proved to be a bright and lively compliment.
Damp Lemon and Almond Cake
Oven: 350 degrees
Buttered 8-inch Springform pan (I used a 9-inch and started checking after 45 minutes)
Cream 1 cup unsalted room temperature butter with 3/4 cup sugar until almost white. Beat in 4 large eggs, 1 at a time, alternating with 1/3 cup AP flour (egg/flour/egg/flour/egg/flour/egg). Once all is incorporated, gently stir in 1 1/3 cup ground almonds, 1/2 tsp. almond extract and the grated zest and juice of 2 lemons.
Pour the batter into the pan and bake for around 50 minutes (that's how long it took me, but in the recipe she notes that it has taken at times 70 minutes) until the cake test comes back clean.
Let cool in the pan for a few minutes, then invert onto a rack and let cool completely. The cake does very well after a few days in plastic wrap.
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