Lemon Drizzle Cake

We have a glut of lemons - this is nothing new; it happens every year, and in fact, given the ripening habit of lemon trees here, is almost constant, year-round. As I get more proficient at pruning lemon trees, however (an annual job from which the deadly thorns which decorate the branches of the trees generally leave my hands and forearms well-shredded!) the crop gets ever more intense. Currently, we have three trees which are literally dripping with fruit (several hundred lemons on each one) and two more which are not much less generous, and three or four others which are biding their time...

And so...lemon & sage risotto; lemon chicken; lemon in salads; lemon cheesecake; lemon tart (classic); lemon & lime tart; lemon meringue pie; limencello cake; lemon souffle glace; burnt lemon cream, with blackberries; lemon sorbet; lemon marmalade, lemonade...any and all new additions to the repertoire are gratefully received.

This particular one is a slight re-working of something from Elizabeth Luard's very reliable 'Recipes and Ramblings'. There's much to be said for collections of recipes which reflect a lifetime of tried-and-trusted experimentation, of which this recipe is a clear example. I've made it two or three times now, most recently to go with a cup of tea following an incoming garden-visit...and the requests for further slices (and for a copy of the recipe) not only broke regularly into the conversation, but left the plate entirely empty as a result.

Ingredients: 6 oz butter, at room temperature; 10 oz sugar; 3 medium eggs; 1 cup '00' flour, mixed with 1.5 tsp baking powder, and half tsp salt; juice from three medium lemons and the zwest from one.

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C.

2. Grease a 2 lb loaf tin (approx 10" x 5"), then make a long strip of aluminium foil (folded over a couple of times), long enough to go the length and both short sides of the loaf tin, and leave a good overhang at either end; put the strip in  place on the base and sort sides of the tin, and grease the exposed top of the foil (this strip allows you to get the cake out of the tin without keaving any of it behind - which it does have a tendency to do).

3. Process the butter along with 6 oz of sugar, and then add the eggs and process to amalgamate properly. Add the lemon  zest and the juice from one the lemons.

4. Scrape the mixture into a large mixing bowl, and fold in the flour mixture, before putting the mixture into the prepared tin.

5. Bake for about 45 minutes, by which time the cake will have risen beautifully, and will have come away from the sides of the tin.

6. While the cake bakes, put the remaining lemon juice and sugar in asmall pan and heat gently over a lwo heat, to make a lemon syrup. As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, pour all of the syrup over it, and let it sit, for the syrup to be absorbed by the cooling cake.

7. Let sit in the tin for 30 minutes or longer, before unmoulding onto plate, pulling on the exposed ends of the aluminium foil as you do so, to ensure the cake unmoulds cleanly.  

Pain de Campagne

is how this is described in Robuchon's 'Cuisine Actuelle', a book I have owned for several decades (I think I bought my copy when it had just been published for the first time), but which for some reason I've only recently started to dip into with any serious intent. The Technical Dept disputes the 'Pain de Campagne' moniker, as he says true P de C would not use rye flour, and down in Belforte - where they did their years before the mast, living as true french peasants, and so ought to know their stuff - they also thought it was not exactly the real deal - although good - and thought instead it was more like something they recalled as 'Grandmère's ' loaf. The book was fronted by somebody called Patricia Wells - an american foodie, who's gushy outpourings not infrequently lead her into factual errors in the course of her translation - and so it could be that the error in naming lies with her, and not with Mr R himself. 

When it comes down to it, though, it doesn't terribly matter, as the recipe produces an excellent loaf, which will remain fresh for far longer than you will ever need it to, since the more-ishness of this bread means it doesn't sit around for long at all!

The recipe calls, in part, for 'unbleached plain flour', which can mean anything or nothing, and choice of flour will depend on what you prefer from the choices you have readily available. The first few times I made this, I used 'Gran Tenero 00' as the 'unbleached plain' element, and the result was pretty good - but more recently I've taken to using Manitoba instead, which has a higher gluten content, with the result that the bread rises more fully during baking.

Oh, and for those who do not knead by hand (guilty, as charged - life's far too short), one tip attached as a footnote to this recipe which I have found to be revolutionary, is that when kneading only a small amount (for one loaf, say) then it is much better to use the paddle attachment than to use the dough hook (counter-intuitive, I know), as this results in a dough which has been more thoroughly kneaded and will therefore have a much firmer texture. Simple, but worthy of note. 

For one large loaf:

Ingredients: 425g 'unbleached plain flour'; 225g rye flour; 15g fresh yeast; 16 fl oz tepid water; 1 tsp sugar; 1 tbs salt; 1 tbs clear honey.

Method:

1. Crumble the yeast into half the water, add the sugar to this, and leave to stand for 15 minutes.

2. Add the yeast-liquid to the mixing bowl, add half of each of the two flours, and mix briefly for two or three minutes. Cover the bowl with a dampl cloth, and leave to prove for half an hour.

3. In the remaining 8 fl oz of water, thoroughly dissolve the salt, and add this to the mixture in the bowl. With the paddle at low speed, gradually add the remaining plain and rye flour, and then slightly increase the speed to knead the dough thoroughly.

4. Knead for five minutes, then add to the mixture the spoonful of honey, and knead for a further five minutes. The dough should be relatively firm by this stage. Turn it out onto a floured surface and knead by hand for a minute or so - I'm not sure whether this is because the warmth from your hands has some alchemical effect, or whether it is only by working it in this way that you can be certain the dough is firm enough; certainly, if it is too sloppy to be able to knead properly by hand, then you must add more flour until the dough is firm enough to be able to work by hand. Return the dough to the bowl, cover again with the damp cloth, and leave in a warm place for 40 minutes. ( I always leave it in the oven, with the door closed, and a roasting pan filled with biling water in the bottom of the oven).

5. Take the risen dough form the bowl, and one more knead it on a floured surface for a minute or so, before forming it into a ball, and puttting it onto a greased baking tray.  Flour the surface of the dough generously, and loosely place the damp cloth back over it. Leave in the warm place to rise again for an hour.

6. Forty minutes into the rising time, pre-heat the baking oven to 250 degrees C. Twenty minutes later, after an hour's rising, remove the damp cloth and make a few slashes in top of the risen dough, to allow it to rise properly when baking.

7. Bake for twenty minutes at 250, then twenty minutes further at 190 degrees. Keep an eye on it towards the end, to ensure it doesn't get too dark on top - if it seems in danger of doing so, and you want to take it out of the oven several minutes short of the specified time, it is properly fine to do so.

Recipe: Peshwari Naan

To the San Lorenzo's for dinner on Saturday, where they excelled themselves in producing an Indian menu that rivalled Mumbai's finest  (in small.....since we had Pilau Rice, Aloo Gobi, and Chicken Tikka Masala). Our contribution was an offering of Peshwari Naan - a successful experiment,  and childishly satisfying to make, since they swell up gratifyingly when cooked and look exactly like they should, at the first time of trying. 

The first half of the evening resembled a Feydeau farce, as the SL's dining room is at the fulcrum of their apartment, and has half a dozen doors which open into it. Through which a dizzying array of people appeared and disappeared with great frequency, as we sat at table: a pint-sized neice, who'd been left with them for the afternoon, and appeared to have been forgotten by her parents; a teenaged daughter (and assorted friends) who was getting ready to go out to a party, (which, since this involved trying various clothes and different hairstyles, could have been the same person or an entirely different one each time she - or they - reappeared); and a brother-in-law....who eventually arrived to retrieve his abandoned offspring. To add to the theatrical effect, Paula  wore a sari, and Paolo an increasingly thunderous expression, as yet another door opened, to intrude upon his carefully prepared menu. All ended well, as the extras gradually peeled off, and calm descended upon an excellent dinner.

For five Peshwari Naan.

Ingredients: 250g Plain Flour; 2 tsp Sugar; half tsp Salt; half tsp Baking Powder; 120 ml Milk; 2 tbs Olive Oil; 30g Slivered Almonds; 1 tbs melted Butter. Filling: 70g Ground almonds; 35g Raisins; 1 tsp Sugar.

Method:

1. Combine Flour, Sugar, Salt, and Baking Powder in a bowl. Separately, mix together Milk and Oil, and pour into a well in the centre of the dry ingredients; using a fork, gradually draw the dry ingredients into the central pool of liquid, until all has been combined into a sticky ball of dough. Knead (either by hand or using a dough hook) for ten minutes or so, until the dough has become a soft, smooth ball.

2. Place in an oiled ball, cover with a damp cloth and leave in a warm place to 'prove' for an hour.

3. Divide the dough into five equal pieces and on a floured surface roll each piece into a circle approximately 10" in diameter.

4. Combine the filling ingredients in the food processor and briefly work until reduced to a fine powder.

5.Cover half of each dough circle with the powdered filling, leaving about an inch free round the edge, then brush the exposed edge with water, before folding each circle over, to enclose the filling fully. 

6. Roll each semi-circle out to make a tear-drop shape. Sprinkle with slivered Almonds, and place on a baking sheet under a hot grill for one or two minutes, until the Naan swells and the surface is spotted dark brown.

7. Before serving, brush each Naan with melted Butter.

Recipe: Apricot & Cinnamon Cake

Adapted from a recipe of Linda Collister (I found her version a little dry, frankly, so I played around with the proportions of the ingredients until I had something I liked), this is an excellent - and quick - light fruit cake. So light, that it risks being consumed all at one sitting!

This cake definitely benefits from being left for several days or so after baking, to allow the richness of the fruit and the cake itself to blend together thoroughly.

To make an 8" diameter cake:

Ingredients: 130g Butter; 130g sugar (muscovado, if you can get it, which I can't in Italy, and so I just use demarara instead); 170g self-raising Flour (again, if you can get it; if you can't then use plain flour, and for each cup of flour, add one and a half teaspoons of baking powder, and half a teaspoon of salt); 1 tsp ground Cinnamon; 30g ground Almonds; 3 medium eggs; 220g ready-to-eat dried Apricots, chopped finely; a handful of slivered Almonds.

Method:

1. Use a hand-held beater to cream the Butter, then add to it the Sugar and keep beating, until light and fluffy.

2. In a separate bowl, combine the Flour with the Cinnamon and the ground Almonds.

3. Add the Eggs one at a time to the creamed Butter & Sugar, beating to incorporate after each Egg has been added, and including a spoonful of the Flour mixture along with the last Egg.

4. Fold in the rest of the Flour mixture, along with the diced Apricots.

5. Put the mixture into a prepared cake mould (greased, if using a cake tin, or the base lined with greaseproof paper, if using a silicone mould) and sprinkle the surface with the slivered Almonds.

6. Bake for an hour at 170 degrees C. Check for doneness by inserting a knife into the centre of the cake and seeing that it emerges completely clean - if not, then bake for a fewer minutes lnger and test again.

7. Allow to rest for five minutes, before you turn it out to cool completely. Keep in an airtight container box for three days before serving.

Recipe: Pan di Spagna (Genoise)

Doubtless I'll get shot down by the purists who differentiate between Pan di Spagna and Genoise, on the basis that the former incorporates the yolks and the whites of the eggs separately, whilst the latter incorporates them in one go. There are some other differences in method also - but, since the end result is effectively identical, whether you're following a recipe for Pan di Spagna or one for Genoise, then I have no qualms about listing this recipe equally under the latter heading. I've followed various different Genoise recipes, over the years - generally either Le Notre's version, or that from Alain DuCaisse - but this recipe for Pan di Spagna , which comes from Harry's Bar in Venice is by far the best: straightforward, quick and entirely reliable.

The history of the cake seems a little confused. Apparently the brainchild of an Italian cook called Cabona in the mid 1700s, the italian name refers to the fact that he was in Spain when he first came up with the idea - but his provenance from Genoa suggests that the same cake might also have been called Genoise by the rest of Europe for much the same reason.

The Harry's Bar version is used to great effect between layers of Creme Patissière in soft- fruit tarts, as a double layer enveloping a purée of either apple (or pear) in the Harry's Bar version of apple pie, and as the central element for both their meringue and chocolate cakes. It is also excellent as the base layer, soaked in appropriate alcohol, for any sweet soufflé. In almost all its uses, the cake needs to be sliced into thin layers before use - for which you need either a steady hand and a sharp knife, or else a wire cake slicer (Westmark sells one; I've always understood these things to be called a 'harp', but the Westmark one which I have goes under the name of 'lyre').

For 1 x 23 cm diameter cake.

Ingredients: 4 Eggs, separated; 150g Sugar (or Splenda); 140g Flour, sifted; 1 tsp Vanilla essence.

Method.

1. Heat the oven to 180 degrees C.

2. Beat the yolks with the Sugar until the mixture is pale yellow; add the Vanilla essence, and mix in.

3. Whisk the egg whites until stiff, then stir a third of this into the yolk/sugar mixture, and fold in the remaning two-thirds of the beaten whites.

4. In three lots, gently fold the sifted Flour into the egg mixture, then pour the mixture into a greased spring-form pan.

5. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 25 minutes; allow to rest for a minute or two still in its tin, then remove from the tin and allow it to cool completely.

Recipe: Cheese Scones

An enduring memory from ages past. The cheese scones in the UL - large and light and delicious...and never quite enough butter provided on the side of the plate to last until the final mouthful. The height of indulgence would have been to have had a second one - although I'm not sure that I ever did, undergraduate finances being what they were. Consumed in winter in the noisy, fuggy atmosphere of the tea-room, or in summer, stretched out on the lawn in the south courtyard. Not quite a Proustian madeleine...but not far off.

I've been playing with recipes, and this is the closest I've come. These scones take almost no time from start to finish - five minutes to make and roll out the dough, and fifteen minutes in a pre-heated oven. Best eaten still warm, broken in half and buttered generously. Since the elderly relative has come to live with us, a little-something has become the order of the day, at lunchtime (although I suspect that most of the ER's lunch ends up inside the four-footed, who negotiates shamelessly to that end). Once a week, therefore, I bake bread - one for the bread bin and one for the freezer - and on the occasions when I've forgotten and we've run out of bread, then this scone recipe is my immediate refuge.

For approximately six scones.

Ingredients: 30g parmesan; 1 tbs fresh chives (optional - but recommended); 225g flour; 3 tsp baking powder; half tsp salt; half tsp bicarb. of soda; 30g butter; 150 ml milk. Beaten egg, or cream, to glaze.

Method:

1. Heat the oven to 180 degrees C.

2. Cut the Parmesan into 1 cm (approx) dice, and then process these into fine crumbs in the food processor, along with the (optional) chives

3. Add the Flour, Baking Powder, Bicarb, and Salt to the processor bowl, and process briefly, just to mix everything together.

4. Cut the chilled Butter into dice, add to the contents of the processor bowl, and process for about thirty seconds, until it looks like sand.

5. Add the Milk and process again for twenty seconds or so, until the mixture has gathered itself into one lump.

6. On a floured surface, roll out to a thickness of just over 1 cm, then use a 2" circular cutter to cut out the scones, which should be placed on a greased baking sheet. Gather up the trimmings and roll out and cut again, until all the mixture has been used up. Brush with egg or cream, to glaze the tops, before placing them in the oven.

7. Bake in the pre-heated oven for about fifteen minutes, until the scones have risen and the tops are a deep golden brown.

8. Let rest on a wire tray for a couple of minutes, and then, as soon as they're cool enough to handle, dig in!

Recipe:Chocolate Tart

My version of a recipe from Nico Ladenis. Rich and sensual...a small piece goes a long way...but my God, is it good!

This is another egg-based tart filling, to be cooked at a low temperature so that it 'sets' rather than 'bakes'. If cooking this at 170 degrees, as specified here, then you need to hover beside the oven and be sure to remove the tart from the heat when the centre of the filling still perceptibly wobbles when you move the tart tin - it will continue to cook in its own heat, and will be perfectly set after it has sat for a further ten minutes or so. I suspect that it would cook equally well in an oven set at around 130 degrees, but would take longer, and you wouldn't need to bother hovering over it, as there's no danger of over-cooking at the lower temperature.

I generally serve this either with an orange-flavoured crème anglais or else with a lime and lemon flavoured cream - in either case, the citrus flavour cuts across the richness of the chocolate admirably.

Good eaten either shortly after it has been made, or else on the following day.

For one 8" tart.

Ingredients: Shortcrust pastry, made with 150g '00' Flour, 120g Butter, and approx 40ml Water; 200g Butter; 300g good quality dark Chocolate; 2 Eggs; 60g Sugar; Icing Sugar, to decorate.

Method:

1. Roll out the pastry, line an 8" false-bottomed tin, and leave to rest for thirty minutes before blind baking in a 200 degree C oven. Reduce the heat to 170 degrees C after the pastry shell has been removed.

2. Melt the Butter and Chocolate together in a double boiler or simmertopf. Allow to cool slightly.

3. Whisk the Eggs with the Sugar to make a Sabayon; stir into this the Chocolate and Butter mixture, and incorporate thoroughly.

4. Pour the mixture into the baked pastry shell, and return to the oven for ten minutes or so. Remove from the oven as soon as the surface shows signs of 'bubbling', and while the centre of the tart still seems quite wobbly. Allow to rest for at least ten minutes, while the filling will continue to firm up.

Dust with Icing Sugar before serving.

Recipe: Tomato Tart

One of my all-time favourites, a miniature version of which was a stalwart on my canapé list in the days when I was cooking for my living. The recipe came originally from Julia Child, but I don't honestly know whether the version given here has suffered memory-creep, because when I went just now to check whether the version I now make still agrees with the original, that particular page was missing from my very battered copy of 'Mastering the Art'...which says much for the number of times I must have consulted it in the past.

The anchovies and olives are important, as they cut the sweetness of the tomato, and give greater structure to the final combination of flavours. As with many such dishes, this is almost better eaten cold the following day - although the likelihood of having any leftover to do so is pretty slim!

For an 8" diameter tart.

Ingredients: Shortcrust pastry made with 4 oz Butter, 5 oz '00' Flour, a pinch of Salt, and approx 30 fl oz cold water; half a medium Onion, finely diced; 2 oz Butter; 1 minced Garlic clove; 3 Anchovy fillets; 1 14 oz can of Tomatoes; 3 tbs tomato paste; 3 Eggs; 1 tsp dried thyme; Salt & Pepper, to taste; 8 stoned Black Olives; 3 tbs grated Parmesan.

Method:

1. Line a false-bottomed 8" diameter tart tin with the pastry, prick the base of the shell, and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes. After resting, bake blind in a 190 degree C oven for ten minutes with weights in place, and five minutes further after the weights have been removed.

2. Melt the Butter in a sauté pan, and sauté the Onion and Garlic together for several minutes, then add the chopped Anchovies, and continue to cook until the Anchovies start to fall to pieces.
Add the tinned tomatoes, and cook over a low heat, covered, for ten minutes, then for a further five minutes uncovered, with the heat raised so that the liquid from the tomatoes reduces (you want the mixture to be quite thick at this stage).

3, Beat the Eggs in a bowl, along with the Tomato Paste, thyme and seasoning. Carefully combine this with the cooked tomatoes, and then put the whole lot into the baked tart shell. Arrange the Olives over the surface of the tart, and then sprinkle the grated Parmesan evenly over the top.

4. Bake for approximately 30 minutes at 200 degrees C - the tart is done when the filling puffs fulsomely, and the cheese on top has melted and begun to go brown.

Slice, and serve.

Recipe: Lemon Tart

Two things make this recipe a phenomenal success:
1. Use of ‘00’ flour for the pastry (not only does it produce a superbly-textured pastry, but the flavour of the baked tart shell is distinct and delicious – not unlike a particularly good digestive biscuit); and
2. The filled tart should be baked in an oven set at only around 130 degrees C, so that the filling ‘sets’ rather than ‘cooks’; this gives it a wonderfully velvety quality.

Over the years, I’ve tried many different methods for making Lemon Tart. This one is as good as it gets!

For an 8” diameter tart.

Ingredients: Short-crust pastry made with 5 oz ‘00’ Flour, 4 oz Butter and water; 4 Eggs; 2 oz Sugar (or equivalent volume Splenda); zest from 2 Lemons, and the juice from 1; half a cup of cream. Icing Sugar, to dust the surface of the finished tart.

Method:

1. Roll out pastry and use it to line a greased (or Trennwaxed) 8” false-bottomed tart tin. Leave to rest in the fridge for half an hour, then bake blind for twenty minutes in a 200 degree C oven. (The shell needs to be fully baked at this stage).

2. Reduce the oven temperature to 130 degrees C.

3. Whisk the Eggs in a bowl with the Sugar (or Splenda); whisk in the Cream, along with the Lemon zest and juice (and if you have any Boyajian Lemon Oil, then add a couple of drops of this also – it raises the lemon ‘hit’ significantly).

4. Pour the filling into the tart shell, and bake for approximately 45 minutes; remove from the oven as soon as the filling is clearly no longer liquid when you gently shake the tart tin to test for done-ness.

Allow to cool, and sprinkle with Icing Sugar. Serve.

Recipe: Excellent Fruit Cake

I've been exploring fruit cake recipes recently, in search of the wonderfully moist and fruit-laden version that I remember from my childhood. To my surprise, actual recipes are a little thin on the ground, and I've found I've had to cast my net quite wide. I found one flourless version from New Zealand which involved soaking all the fruit in quantities of Orange Juice, and which emerged from the oven looking like a large muesli bar (although, to be fair, it tasted better than it looked) ; another one which included vast amounts of demerara sugar, and which used mincemeat rather than dried fruit - the end result was light and delicious, but was consumed in its entirety in twenty minutes flat! There was a recipe from the Scottish Tourist Board which - rather pointlessly, I thought - included a couple of tablespoons of whisky, and the end result was good, but somehow a little two-dimensional. And then, there's this one. Seriously delicious - and with the unexpected bonus of a layer of white marzipan in the centre, which really kicks the whole thing up into a class of its own....

One of the problems I have with these cakes is the patience required to let them mature sufficiently in order to do themselves justice. This one really does need three days minimum - if you broach it any earlier, then the cherries are somehow just cloyingly sweet, and the cake itself hasn't yet acquired the general moistness that a good fruit cake should have. Leave it for three days, though, and it is stellar!

Makes one cake, 8" in diameter.

Ingredients:8 oz Plain Flour; 1.5 teaspoons of Baking Powder; 6 oz unsalted Butter; 6oz Muscovado Sugar; 4 Eggs; 2 oz Ground Almonds; 12oz mixed Dried Fruit; 4 oz halved Glacé Cherries; 1.5 tablespoons Milk; 8 oz White Marzipan; 1.5 oz Flaked Almonds.

Method:

1. Heat the oven to 180 degrees C.

2. Sift the Flour with the Baking Powder, and put to one side.

3. With a hand beater, cream the Butter with the Sugar, then beat in the Eggs, one by one. With each of the last two Eggs add a tablespoon of sifted Flour.

4. Fold into the creamed mixture the Flour & Baking Powder, along with the Ground Almonds.

5. Into this mixture, fold the Dried Fruit and Cherries, then mix in the Milk. It should be the right consistency just to drop gently from an upturned spoon.

6. Grease an 8" false-bottomed cake tin, and spoon half of the cake mixture into the tin. Roll the Marzipan into a circle the same diameter as the tin, and place it on the cake mixture in the tin; spoon the remainder of the mixture over the top and sprinkle the surface with the Flaked Almonds.

7. Bake half an hour in the pre-heated oven, then reduce the temperature to 170 degrees C, and bake for a further hour and a half.

After removing from the oven, leave it to cool completely, then turn it out and keep it in an airtight container for three days before cutting into it.

Enjoy - it is sensational!

Recipe: Egg-White & Almond Biscuits

Sunday Morning. The four-footeds had raced around in the park for twenty minutes or so, before heading home to doze in front of the fire. We had exactly half an hour to spare before heading out to the Royal Academy to see the Cranach Exhibition - so, time enough to make some almond biscuits to have with coffee before we left. Approximately three minutes to make the mixture, and a further two to pipe the biscuits onto a baking sheet; ten minutes later, and they're done!

Yet another way of ploughing into the Egg White Mountain, these biscuits are simple and delicious, and come across as surprisingly sophisticated for the amount of work involved. When first out of the oven, they are quite soft and could easily be moulded to use as the outer form for a charlotte; after a couple of hours, they become quite crisp - if there are any still left at that point, that is!

Oh, and the Cranach exhibition was stunningly good!


For about 24 biscuits.

Ingredients: 4 Egg Whites; 4 ox Ground Almonds; 2 oz Sugar + equivalent volume Splenda; 2 tablespoons Flour; half a teaspoon of Almond Essence.

Method:

1. Heat the oven to 250 degrees C.

2. Assemble all the ingredients. Beat the egg whites until stiff, then fold in all the other ingredients.

3. Pile the mixture into a piping bag, and pipe it onto a greased baking sheet, or a sheet lined with greaseproof paper or silpat. (I use a fluted piping nozzle, in order to produce a more 'finished' result).

4. Bake ten minutes in the pre-heated oven - don't leave them any longer than that, as they burn very easily.

Remove from the baking sheet and leave to cool on a rack. Ready to eat as soon as they've cooled down sufficiently, although they will also be fine after they've crisped up, several hours later. I'm told they keep reasonably well if stored in an airtight container - personally, I wouldn't know......

Recipe: Flourless Chocolate & Almond Cake

A version of this can be found in the pages of Elizabeth David's 'French Provincial Cooking', I discovered when I googled it for provenance - although her version adds coffee and rum, and omits the almond essence and slivered almonds, the crunch and flavour hits from which I rather like. In her version she also says that one of the traditional names for the cake is 'The Queen of Sheba', which is rather charming. Immediately, it conjures up the image of some nineteenth century pastry chef on a flight-of-fancy, probably one rainy afternoon in the back-kitchen of a small bakery, in some provincial town in Brittany, circa 1864!

I've also seen a version of it in a book by Linda Collister (she who occasionally gets hauled into Woman's Hour on Radio 4, to demonstrate how to make pancakes and suchlike). She also ascribes its origins to somewhere in small-town France.

Dietarily sound, this has the additional benefit of being phenomenally quick and simple to make. Needing respite from the computer screen yesterday afternoon, I took temporary refuge in making this cake, which took ten minutes out of my afternoon, and half an hour later was out of the oven and cooling down, ready to be consumed with a cup of tea - all in less than an hour after the idea of making it had first occurred. The finished cake is richly flavoured, but at the same time moist and very, very light.

Ingredients: 4 oz Butter, at room temperature; 3 oz Sugar; 4 oz Ground Almonds; 4 Eggs, separated; half a teaspoon of Almond Essence; 4 oz Dark Chocolate (Felchlin, by preference, but if not, something like Valhrona or better-quality Lindt) ; 1/4 cup of Slivered Almonds.

Method.

1. Heat the oven to 200 degrees C.

2. Melt the Chocolate in a double boiler or zimmertopf. Once it has melted, allow it to cool slightly, as you get on with the next stage in the recipe.

3. In the food processor, cream the Butter and Sugar together, then add the Egg Yolks, one by one, processing them into the creamed mixture after each one has been added.

4. Add the Ground Almonds, and process in, then add the melted Chocolate and the Almond Essence and again run the processor for ten seconds or so thoroughly to amalgamate everything. Scrape this mixture out of the food processor into a large bowl.

5. In a separate bowl, whisk the Egg Whites until quite stiff. Then take a quarter of this Egg-White mixture and stir it into the Chocolate mixture, to lighten it, before folding in the remainder of the beaten Egg White - much like making a chocolate mousse.

6. Grease a 20 cm spring-form cake tine (or spray with Trennwax), and pour the cake mixture into it, levelling it off inside the tin. Sprinkle Slivered Almonds over the top.

7. Bake for fifteen minutes at 200 degrees C, then reduce the temperature to 180 degrees C for a further ten minutes. If the Almonds show any sign of getting too dark, then cover the cake loosely with a piece of foil. Check for done-ness with a skewer, and by pressing the surface of the cake (if the skewer comes out clean, and the surface springs back under the light touch of a finger, then it's done).

8. Run a knife round the cake inside the tin, but don't turn it out immediately - leave it to cool down in the tin for ten minutes or so, before removing the spring-form bit of the tin.

In theory, I believe the cake is then supposed to rest for a day before being eaten. In practice, five minutes or so is about par for the course in this house!