Ingredients:
200g/7oz butter
200g/7oz caster sugar
4 eggs, beaten
175g/6oz ground almonds
250g/9oz mashed potato
The zest of 3 lemons
2 teaspoons of cream of tartar and 1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda OR 2 teaspoons of gluten free baking powder
Extra sugar and lemon juice for drizzling
Method:
- Heat oven to 180°C/350F/Gas Mark 4.
- Grease and line a 23cm/9inch round cake pan.
- Cream the butter and sugar until they are light and fluffy.
- Beat in the eggs and ground almonds - alternating between a splosh of egg and a spoonful of almond (not all of the almond yet!).
- Stir the baking powder or cream of tartar/bicarb into what's left of the almonds
- Fold the almonds, mashed potato and lemon zest into the butter/sugar/eggs mixture. Do a little at first to loosen the mixture, then add the rest.
- Spoon the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a skewer poked in comes out clean.
- Once it's out of the oven, but before removing it from the tin stab the top of the cake with your skewer about half the way down the cake (this is so the lemon drizzle can get in)
- Now mix lemon juice and sugar together to form a runny paste - I like to be generous with the drizzle so I use the juice of all three lemons and about 3 tablespoons of sugar, but you can use as much as you like. While the paste is still gritty, pour it over the top of the cake - get it right to the edges.
- Once the cake is cool, you can take it out of the tin and serve.
You could make it both gluten and dairy free by substituting dairy free margarine for the butter, and reduce the sugar by substituting half of it for coconut or nut free by substituting the ground almonds for wheat-free flour or polenta.