Almond Cake

Ingredients

• 4 drops almond extract 
• 1.8 cups blanched almonds and whole
• 6 large eggs separated
• 1  lemon zest grated
• 1  orange zest grated
• 1.3 cups caster sugar 

Equipment

• food processor
• oven
• hand mixer
• springform pan

Directions

1. Finely grind the almonds in a food processor.
2. With an electric mixer, beat the egg yolks with thesugar to a smooth pale cream. Beat in the zests and almondextract.
3. Add the ground almonds and mix very well.
4. With clean beaters, beat the egg whites in a large bowluntil stiff peaks form. Fold them into the egg and almondmixture (the mixture is thick, so that you will need to turnit over quite a bit into the egg whites).
5. Grease an 11-inch springform pan, preferably nonstick,with butter and dust it with flour.
6. Pour in the cake batter,and bake into a preheated 350°F for 40 minutes, or until itfeels firm to the touch.
7. Let cool before turning out.
8. Just before serving, dust the top of the cake with confectioners' sugar. Or, ifyou like, cut a St. James cross out of paper.
9. Place it in the middle of the cake, anddust the cake with confectioners' sugar, then remove the paper.
10. Variations
11. Add 1 teaspoon cinnamon to the egg yolk and almond mixture.•Majorca has a similar almond cake called gató d'Ametla, which is flavored withthe grated zest of 1 lemon, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and sometimes a few dropsof vanilla extract.•In Navarre, the cake is covered with apricot jam.
12. Reprinted with permission from The Food of Spain by Claudia Roden, © 2011 Ecco, an imprint of Harper
13. Collins
14. Publishers