Delicious served still warm as a cake on its own, or with yoghurt or whipped cream as a dessert. A dollop of lemon curd would be great too. It is still very good 2-3 days later as well.
For the cake
| 4 | Eggs |
| 250 g | Demerara sugar |
| 150 g | Butter, softened |
| 1 tsp | Vanilla extract |
| 1 cup | Plain flour |
| 2 tsp | Baking powder |
| 2 | Lemons, finely grated zest only |
| 170 ml | Cold water |
| 300 g | Ground almonds, almond meal (Main) |
For the topping
| 70 g | Almonds, natural, sliced (flaked) (Main) |
| 60 g | Butter |
| ⅓ cup | Brown sugar |
| ½ tsp | Vanilla extract |
| 1 pinch | Salt |
| 2 Tbsp | Full cream milk |
Directions
- Heat the oven to 180C. Line a 23cm square cake tin with baking paper. Lightly toast the flaked almonds for the topping.
- Place the eggs, sugar, butter and vanilla extract in the bowl of a food processor and process for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Sift the flour and baking powder together and add to the food processor with the lemon zest. Process for 10 seconds.
- Add the water and ground almonds and process for a further minute. Pour mixture into the prepared tin and place in the oven. Bake for 40 minutes.
- For the topping, melt the butter in a heavy-based saucepan over low heat. Add the sugar, vanilla extract, salt and milk. Bring slowly up to the boil and cook for about 1 minute until the mixture thickens. Remove from the heat and stir in the almonds.
- Remove cake from the oven and spread almond topping over it. Return to the oven for a further 10 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.
- Leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes, but after 5 minutes run a knife around the tin to prevent the topping from sticking. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container for 2-3 days.