Easy Almond Cake

Oh, Nigella, when your recipes fail I really do feel so let down by you and your promises of being a domestic deity.  I made your Easy Almond Cake, and it was not the eggy, almondy pound cake that I expected (and that I got the last time I made this recipe).

To be fair, she recommends a springform tube tin for this.  When I made it before it rose fabulously then in my other bundt tin (yes, I have 2 bundt tins thanks to one wonderful Christmas).  The other tin is black and less fancy in design, but the one I used on this occasion looks like this (along with the other ingredients).

More fancy, and more difficult to grease.  I thought I had done an ok job, but, well...

First, in any case, I blended some butter and marzipan.

Until it looked like this:

At which point I realised there should have been sugar in there too.  Oops.

That's better.  Then I added 6 eggs, some vanilla and almond extract:

Then some self raising flour and then it was ready for the tin.

An hour or so in the oven and out it came, looking glorious!

I let it cool down a long time to prevent it falling apart while turning it out.  I flipped it over and...nothing.  I ran a knife around the edge...nothing.  I banged it on the table over and over and over...nothing.  So eventually I just tried to get a slice out to see if once I did that I could get some leverage and sneakily put the slice back in once it was out.  No luck  - this baby was not coming out of that tin.  So instead, I just took slices out and stuck them in the tin for the after mass crowd.  Hmph.

Now why do you think no one was impressed by my offerings?

Still, I offer the recipe as it was good when I did it correctly.

Recipe for Easy Almond Cake

Ingredients

250g butter

250g marzipan

150g sugar

1/4 tsp almond essence

1/4 tsp vanilla

6 eggs

150g self raising flour

Method

You will need a 25cm / 10 inch springform tube pan or patterned ring mould, buttered and floured, and all ingredients must be room temperature.

1. Preheat oven to 170ºC/gas mark 3/325ºF. Chop the butter and marzipan to make them easier to break down, and put them in the bowl of the food processor, fitted with the doublebladed knife, with the sugar. Process until combined and pretty well smooth. Add almond essence and vanilla extract, process again, then break the eggs one at a time through the funnel, processing again each time. Tip the flour down the funnel, processing yet again, and then pour the mixture into the prepared tin, scraping the sides and bottom with a rubber spatula.
2. Bake for 50 minutes, but check from 40. Then, when the cake looks golden and cooked and a cake-tester or fine skewer (or a piece of spaghetti) comes out cleanish, remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin before turning out. (This is when you will be feeling grateful if it's the Springform you're using.)