Damp Apple And Almond Cake Nigella Lawson Food

LEMON POLENTA CAKE

Steps:

• This cake is a sort of Anglo-Italian amalgam. The flat, plain disc is reminiscent of the confections that sit geometrically arranged in patisserie windows in Italy; the sharp, syrupy sogginess borrows from the classic English teatime favorite, the lemon drizzle cake. It is a good marriage: I love Italian cooking in all respects save one - I find their cakes both too dry and too sweet. Here, though, the flavorsome grittiness of the polenta and tender rubble of ground almond meal provide so much better a foil for the wholly desirable dampness than does the usual flour.
• But there is more to it than that. By some alchemical process, the lemon highlights the eggy butteriness of the cake, making it rich and sharp at the same time. If you were to try to imagine what lemon curd would taste like in cake form, this would be it.
• Although I am greedily happy to slice and cram messily straight into my mouth, letting damp clumps fall where they will, this cake is best eaten - in company at least - with spoon and fork. Either way, consider it a contender for teatime comfort and supper-party celebration alike.
• For the cake: Line the base of your cake pan with parchment paper and grease its sides lightly with butter. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Beat the butter and sugar till pale and whipped, either by hand in a bowl with a wooden spoon, or using a freestanding mixer.
• Mix together the almond meal, polenta and baking powder, and beat some of this into the butter-sugar mixture, followed by 1 egg, then alternate dry ingredients and eggs, beating all the while.
• Finally, beat in the lemon zest and pour, spoon or scrape the mixture into your prepared pan and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes. It may seem wibbly but, if the cake is cooked, a cake tester should come out cleanish and, most significantly, the edges of the cake will have begun to shrink away from the sides of the pan. Remove from the oven to a wire cooling rack, but leave in its pan.
• For the syrup: Make the syrup by boiling together the lemon juice and confectioners' sugar in a smallish saucepan. Once the confectioners' sugar has dissolved into the juice, you're done. Prick the top of the cake all over with a cake tester (a skewer would be too destructive), pour the warm syrup over the cake, and leave to cool before taking it out of its pan.
• Make Ahead Note: The cake can be baked up to 3 days ahead and stored in airtight container in a cool place. Will keep for total of 5 to 6 days.
• Freeze Note: The cake can be frozen on its lining paper as soon as cooled, wrapped in double layer of plastic wrap and a layer of foil, for up to 1 month. Thaw for 3 to 4 hours at room temperature.

NIGELLA LAWSON CLEMENTINE CAKE

Steps:

• Place whole, unpeeled clementines into a pot and cover with cold water.
• Bring to a boil, lower heat to a simmer and let cook 2 hours (she doesn't say to add any additional water in her recipe, but I imagine you may need to add some if too much simmers away).
• Drain, let cool, then cut each Clementine in half, remove seeds, and place in food processor- skins and all.
• Chop the Clementines in the processor finely.
• In a bowl, beat the eggs.
• Add the sugar, almonds, and baking powder to the eggs, mixing well.
• Add the chopped Clementines by hand and mix to combine.
• Pour batter into a greased and parchment lined 8-inch springform pan.
• Bake in a preheated 375 F oven for 40 minutes, then cover loosely with foil to prevent overbrowning and CONTINUE cooking about another 10 minutes or until a toothpick poked into the center comes out clean.
• Let cool in the pan on a wire rack overnight.
• VARIATION: You can substitute an equal weight of regular oranges or lemons for the Clementines; increase the sugar to 1 1/4 cups if you do so.
• OPTIONAL GLAZE: If you wish, you may make a glaze from a little powdered sugar mixed with a bit of lemon juice and water and drizzle it over the top (see my recipe for Cinnamon Bun Icing for a good glaze).

DAMP APPLE AND ALMOND CAKE: NIGELLA LAWSON

Steps:

• Peel, core and chop the apples roughly. Put them in a saucepan with one the lemon juice and sugar, and bring the pan to a boil over a medium heat. Cover the pan and cook over low heat for about 10 minutes or until you can mash the apple to a rough puree with a wooden spoon or fork. (You should have about one heaped cup of puree.) Leave to get cool. Preheat the oven to 350°F; and oil a 10" springform pan with almond oil or a flavourless vegetable oil and line the bottom with parchment paper. Put the cooled puree in the processor with the eggs, ground almonds, superfine sugar and a tablespoonful - or generous squeeze - of lemon juice and blitz to a puree. Pour and scrape, with a rubber spatula for ease, into the prepared pan, sprinkle the flaked almonds on top and bake for about 45 minutes. It's worth checking after 35 minutes, as ovens do vary, and you might well find it's cooked earlier - or indeed you may need to give it a few minutes longer. Put on a wire rack to cool slightly, then remove the sides of the pan. This cake is best served slightly warm, though still good cold. As you bring it to the table, push a teaspoon of confectioners' sugar through a fine sieve to give a light dusting.

APRICOT ALMOND CAKE WITH ROSEWATER AND CARDAMOM

Steps:

• Put the dried apricots into a small saucepan, cover them with 250ml/9fl oz cold water, and drop in the cracked cardamom pods with their fragrant seeds. Put on the heat, then bring to the boil and let it bubble for 10 minutes - don't stray too far away from the pan, as by the end of the 10 minutes the pan will be just about out of water and you want to make sure it doesn't actually run dry as the apricots will absorb more water as they cool. Take the pan off the heat, place on a cold, heatproof surface and let the apricots cool.
• Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4. Grease the sides of the springform cake tin and line the bottom with baking parchment.
• Remove 5 of the dried apricots and tear each in half, then set aside. Discard the cardamom husks, leaving the seeds in the pan.
• Pour and scrape out the sticky contents of the pan into the bowl of a food processor. Add the ground almonds, polenta, baking powder, caster sugar and eggs, and give a good long blitz to combine.
• Open the top of the processor, scrape down the batter, add 2 teaspoons of lemon juice and the rosewater, and blitz again. Scrape into the prepared tin and smooth with a spatula. Arrange the apricot halves around the circumference of the tin.
• Bake for 40 minutes, though if the cake is browning up a lot before it's actually ready, you may want to cover loosely with foil at the 30-minute mark. When it's ready, the cake will be coming away from the edges of the tin, the top will feel firm, and a cake tester will come out with just one or two damp crumbs on it.
• Remove the cake to a wire rack. If you're using apricot jam to decorate, you may want to warm it a little first so that it's easier to spread; rose petal jam is so lusciously soft-set, it shouldn't need any help. Stir a teaspoon of lemon juice into the jam and brush over the top of the cake, then sprinkle with the chopped pistachios and leave the cake to cool in its tin before removing to a plate.