ALMOND CREAM CAKE
Serves 8-10
Melted butter, for greasing 175g unsalted butter, room
temperature, chopped 1¼ cups caster sugar 1½ tsp almond essence 1 tsp vanilla essence
4 eggs
1½ cups self-raising flour 1 cup almond meal
¾ cup buttermilk ½ cup flaked almonds Icing sugar, for dusting
Marscapone almond cream
250g marscapone 180ml thickened cream ½ tsp almond essence 1 tsp grated lemon zest 1 tbsp icing sugar
1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Grease a 23cm deep ring pan (12-cup capacity) with butter. Line base with baking paper.
2. Put butter, sugar and essences in the small bowl of an electric mixer and beat until pale and creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating between each addition. Transfer to a large bowl. Add sifted flour, almond and buttermilk in two batches, stirring until combined.
3. Spoon mixture into pan and smooth top. Sprinkle almonds on top. Bake for about 50-55 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Stand cake on a wire rack for 20 minutes before running a knife around the edge of cake to loosen. Turn out onto a plate then invert onto wire rack with almonds facing up to cool completely.
4. To make mascarpone almond cream, beat all ingredients in the small bowl of an electric mixer until firm peaks form. Cut cake in half horizontally. Place bottom of cake on a serving plate and spread with cream mixture. Replace top of cake, dust with icing sugar and serve.