Damp Apple and Almond Cake

So, the internet is working again! Hooray, hooray!! Well, at least for now. I promise I am changing to a different and hopefully better internet provider. *sigh. How I have missed reading your delicious posts and sharing my rants to all of you. Work has been pretty busy and it's not even the busiest time yet! Next week, it will be... yikes! But I like it when it's busy. Time just flies...

Last week my friend from work Janet harvested some apples from her garden and when she asked if I want some of the apples, of course I said yes. Don't be silly, why and when would I ever say no to food? I was only expecting few apples, but she gave me a bagful of them! Awesome!! The apples are tart like Granny Smith which I love. And in return, apparently, when life, or Janet to be precise, gives you apples, you bake cakes. Obviously I don't mind. There are actually several apple recipes I wanted to try and one of them is this damp apple and almond cake.  This is so easy to make because it's all done in a food processor, and just so lovely with a cup of tea in the afternoon. For this cake, ground almonds are used instead of flour which results in wonderfully delicate and moist cake. Sure, the puréed apples and the 8 eggs help too. I'll be making this often.

Damp Apple and Almond Cake
Recipe by Nigella Lawson

For the apple purée
3 tart eating apples, such as Braeburns
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons caster sugar

For the cake
almond oil/flavourless vegetable oil to grease tin
8 eggs
325 g ground almonds
275 g caster sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
50 g flaked almonds

To decorate
1 teaspoon icing sugar

Peel, core and chop the apples roughly. Put them in a saucepan with the lemon juice and sugar, and bring the pan to a bubble over a medium heat. Cover the pan and cook over a low heat for about 10 minutes or until you can mash the apple to a rough purée with a wooden spoon or fork. You should have about 285 g of purée  Leave to cool.

Preheat the oven to 180 C; oil a 25 cm springform tin with the oil and line the bottom with baking parchment. Put the cooled purée in the food processor with the eggs, ground almonds, caster sugar and lemon juice and blitz to a purée. Pour and scrape into the prepared tin, sprinkle the flaked almonds on top and bake for about 45 minutes. It's worth checking after 35 minutes, as ovens do vary, and you might find it's cooked earlier - or indeed you may need to give it few minutes longer.

Put on a wire rack to cool slightly, the spring open. This cake is best served slightly warm, though still good cold. Push a teaspoon of icing sugar through a fine sieve to give a light dusting. If you'd like, by all means, mix in a pinch or so of ground cinnamon with the icing sugar before you sieve it on the cake at the end.