Gluten Free Almond Cake

This is such a beautiful cake - adapted from Belinda Jeffreys almond cake I substituted the sugar for monkfruit sugar.

Ingredients

• 180g almond meal

• 2/3 cup (60g) desiccated coconut

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 250g castor sugar (I used monkfruit sugar)

• 4 x 60g eggs

• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 1/4 teaspoon almond essence

• 200g unsalted butter, melted and cooled

• 2 tablespoons flaked almonds

• icing sugar, (optional), for dusting

Preheat your oven to 180C. Butter a 23 or 24cm shallow spring form cake tin and line the base and sides with buttered baking paper. Dust the tin lightly with flour (or rice flour if you’re avoiding wheat) and set it aside.

Put the almond meal, desiccated coconut, salt and sugar into a medium-sized bowl and whisk them briskly together with a balloon whisk for 1 minute. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, vanilla extract and almond essence until they’re thoroughly mixed, then mix in the cooled butter until it is incorporated. Tip the butter mixture into the almond mixture and stir them together (you’ll find that it’s quite a loose batter). Scrape this into the prepared tin and spread it out evenly, then scatter the flaked almonds over the top.

Put the tin in the oven and bake the cake for about 40 minutes, or until the top of the cake springs back slowly when you press it gently. Cool the cake in the tin on a wire rack.

Once the cake is cool, invert it onto the rack, remove the tin and paper and invert it again onto a serving plate. Dust the top lightly with icing sugar, if liked, and serve.

  

It’s handy to know that this freezes very well…
I usually slice it before I freeze it and defrost (or microwave) it as I need it (frequently in my case!). It also keeps well in the fridge for a week or so. Warm it gently or bring it to room temperature before eating it – although it has a rather fabulous ‘chewy’ almost candy-like texture when it’s cold too.