Nuts to You!

Saturday evening, I made a lemon-almond cake to take to church for coffee hour. I think somebody didn’t want me to do it.

The recipe was straight forward and not the least bit difficult, but I seemed to hit one snag after another. The biggest problem was that the recipe called for ground almonds rather than almond flour. My Oster has a small, maybe one-cup, container that can be used for small jobs, so I put my 1/2 cup of almonds in there, screwed on the lid and pushed the button. I did not have the lid on tight, and the vibrations unscrewed the entire business, sending almonds everywhere. To make matters even worse, flying bits of machinery knocked an egg on the floor.

What to clean first? We don’t have a dog, so the egg was my job. I picked up the pieces of shell, scraped up what I could, and poured salt on the rest, then grabbed a broom and started cleaning up the nuts. I found almonds all over the counter, behind the mixer and under the fridge. I’ll probably still find more in a week or so.

12 tablespoons unsalted butter

1-1/2 cups sugar

Grated zest of two lemons

3 large eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1-1/2 cups flour

1/3 cups finely ground almonds (from 1/2 cup whole almonds)

1-1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 350. Butter and flour a 9-inch springform pan.

Combine the butter, sugar, and lemon zest in a large bowl. Mix until smooth and well blended. Add the eggs and vanilla, and beat until pale and fluffy – at least 2 minutes.

Add the flour, almonds, baking powder, and salt and add to the butter mixture. Beat for a few seconds and then add the milk. Beat for 30 seconds or so, just until well mixed. Pour into the prepared pan and bake at 350 for 55 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes, the remove the rim from the pan. Invert the cake onto a plate, remove the bottom of the plate, then invert again onto the wire rack.

Lemon Syrup:

1/3 cup lemon juice from those lemons

1/2 cup sugar

Combine the lemon juice and sugar in a small saucepan. Heat, stirring often, just until the syrup is hot and the sugar has dissolved. Using a pastry brush, brush the syrup all over the top and sides of the cake. It seems as if there’s an awful lot of syrup, but the cake will absorb it all. Slide the cake onto an ornamental plate and let it cool completely, at least 2 hours. Just before serving, sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar. It you sprinkle on the sugar too soon it will melt into the lemon glaze, so wait until just before serving the cake or dust it again if necessary.