Almond apple cake

This almond apple cake is soft, moist and delicious. It tastes just like a lemon almond cake, and I would never have guessed there were apples in it! ;). They do, however, add a lovely freshness and extra moisture to the bake. This is a very simple and quick cake to make – all you need to do is blend the ingredients together, which is often the beauty of Nigella Lawson’s recipes. Just remember to prepare the apple purée a little in advance so it has time to cool before adding it to the cake. This almond apple cake is naturally gluten-free and dairy-free. Highly recommended!

Ingredients for the apple purée:

• 2 large apples
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp sugar

Peel and core the apples, then cut them into small cubes. Place in a small saucepan and stir with the lemon juice and sugar. Cook for about 10 minutes, or longer if necessary, stirring frequently, until the apples break down easily when pressed with a spoon. Remove from the heat and leave to cool. You will need 150 g of apple purée for the cake.

Ingredients for the almond apple cake:

• 150 g cooled apple purée (from the recipe above)
• 4 large eggs
• 170 g ground almonds
• 140 g caster sugar
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 25 g flaked almonds, for sprinkling

All ingredients should be at room temperature.

Place all the ingredients, except the flaked almonds, in a food processor and blend until combined.

Line the base of a 20 cm round cake tin with baking paper. Pour in the batter (it will be quite runny) and sprinkle with the flaked almonds.

Bake the almond apple cake at 180°C for approximately 35 minutes, or a little longer, until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

Dust with icing sugar before serving. It is delicious served with yoghurt.

Enjoy!

Recipe source: Feast by Nigella Lawson.