I lay odds you can get this with a picture on the Waitrose site, 'cos I got it on a Waitrose recipe card. It's dead easy (if you're not one of the few who can't manage egg whites. I met someone who couldn't, once).
Cake: 300g almonds, skin on (gives the cake a nice colour) 4 medium eggs 250g caster sugar grated zest of 1 lemon + 1 tbsp juic 1 tsp ground cinnamon.
Syrup: pared and thinly sliced zest of one (another) lemon + juice thereof. 25g sugar
Preheat oven to 160C. Grease and line a 20cm springform cake tin. Whizz the almonds in a food processor until finely ground.
Separate the eggs. Beat the yolks with the sugar, lemon zest and juice until pale and thick. Mix in almonds and cinnamon.
Whip egg whites to stiff(! I did softish) peaks. Mix 2 tbsp (I needed more like half the whites) into the almond mixture to soften it, then gently fold in the remaining whites until thoroughly combined. Pour into the prepared tin and bake 45 minutes or until knife comes out clean (mine took closer to 55).
While the cake cools a bit, gently heat the syrup ingredients until the sugar dissolves. Pour evenly over the cake, then allow to cool completely before removing from the tin. They say sprinkle lightly with icing sugar, then serve slices with whipped cream or yoghurt, decorated with lemon zest. ---------------------
It's very good. Probably even better if you could add a bitter almond to the mix. I'd like to reduce the sugar a touch -- it's very sweet -- but this might be dangerous, because I think it's essentially a baked meringue. Perhaps I should have served it with cream to cut the sweetness...
regards sarah
-- Think of it as evolution in action.
