It was another gloomy day on Tuesday and the young boys of the family I work for were desperate to go to the beach and play in the sea, so they all went off to Cannes and I had the place to myself. I decided to make a cake for tea time when they returned as I had seen a nice recipe for a summery sponge cake with berries baked into the top. I love almond cakes so I found a sponge cake recipe and swapped the flour for ground almonds, to my amazement it actually worked so maybe I am a cake scientist in the making?
225g soft butter
225g caster sugar
225g ground almonds
4 medium eggs
1 lemon zested and juiced
1 heaped tsp baking powder
berries, frozen or fresh
Heat the oven to 180c and butter the inside of your cake tin. Beat the butter and sugar together with an electric whisk until pale and creamy, add the lemon zest and juice then slowly add the eggs one at a time, still with the electric mixer, it may look like its curdled but thats normal.
Mix the ground almonds and baking powder together and fold in using a large spoon until everything is smooth.
If you have frozen berries let them defrost before making the cake and then get rid of the juice that comes out as it will make the cake soggy, sprinkle on some icing sugar and spoon into the base of the cake tin.
I used fresh raspberries and heated them in a pan for a second with a tsp of water and a tablespoon of icing sugar until it had dissolved.
Spoon the cake mixture into the tin on top of the berries and bake in the oven for around 40 mins to an hour, depending on your oven you may need to turn it down to 160c if the cake looks like its getting too brown. To test if its ready insert a skewer and if it comes out clean its ready.
Turn the cake out onto a wire rack to cool and serve with créme fraîche and summer berries.