Almond, Pecan and Lemon Cake

When I arrived back home in London this week, after the big Italian wedding, I immediately felt the desire to bake. I haven’t had the time to cook or bake much over the summer and I really missed that.

I made a loaf of bread the day after I arrived, but I was looking forward to the weekend to attempt baking a new cake and take the photos for the blog.

Searching among my pinned recipes, I found one I had saved from The Little Loaf blog. Kate had made Pistachio & Lemon Loaf Cakes for her birthday and I loved the sound of a citrusy and nutty cake to have with tea as an afternoon treat.

I didn’t have pistachios at home, so I replaced them the pecans. The almonds and lemon were already in Kate’s recipe (which was adapted from the River Cafe Cookbook). I also decided to make one round cake, rather than two loaves. So essentially, my cake looks completely different from the original, so I must go back to The Little Loaf recipe someday and make it right!

Yet, my cake was very good! The result was a moist and sweet cake, perfect to have for breakfast. Certainly a recipe to keep in the books and make again.

Ingredients

• 250g unsalted butter, room temperature
• 250g caster sugar
• 4 large free range eggs
• zest of 1 large lemon
• 1 vanilla pod
• 100g almonds, ground
• 60g pecans, ground
• 40g plain flour

Preparation

Beat the butter and sugar with an electric whisker until light and fluffy.

Gradually beat the eggs into the mixture until incorporated, then add the vanilla seeds (scraped from the pod) and the lemon zest. Fold in the ground nuts and flour.

Preheat the oven to 150 °C degrees. Grease a cake tin, pour the batter in and bake for between 45 minutes. When baked, remove from the oven and leave in the tin for five minutes before removing and allowing to cool completely on a wire rack.