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Prep Time: 15 Minutes Cook Time: 45 Minutes |
Ready In: 60 Minutes Servings: 15 |
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A traditional honey cake using almond meal instead of flour or semolina. Like many greek cakes, it is further enriched by a honey syrup, making it very rich. Greeks don't have a dessert like this after a meal - that would be too much of a good thing. Rather, we would have it with a cup of coffee in the early evening, after our afternoon siesta. Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups almond flour (if you can't get the flour, grind almonds up fairly fine with a couple of tablespoonfuls of sugar an) |
4 eggs, separated |
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar |
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda |
1 1/2 cups honey (greek thyme honey is excellent!) |
1 cup yoghurt (go ahead, get the greek stuff) |
1/2 cup blanched almond, coarsely chopped |
4 tablespoons frozen orange juice concentrate |
1 tablespoon fresh orange zest |
1/2 cup butter |
1/2 cup blanched slivered almond |
1 1/2 cups honey (yep, same stuff as you put in the cake) |
1 1/2 cups orange juice |
Directions:
1. Make the syrup first: bring 1 1/2 cups honey and 1 1/2 cups orange juice to a boil in a saucepan.
2. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 min.
3. Skim surface of syrup for any froth that may form.
4. Allow syrup to cool.
5. For cake: Preheat oven to 350F.
6. Butter a 9 X 13 inch baking dish well.
7. Sift together almond flour and baking soda.
8. Beat egg whites with cream of tartar until you have a stiff meringue.
9. Combine egg yolks, honey, yoghurt, almonds, orange juice concentrate, and orange zest.
10. Stir into dry ingredients.
11. Gently fold in 1/4 of meringue mixture to lighten almond batter, and then fold in the rest.
12. It is OK to have a few white streaks.
13. Pour batter into baking pan.
14. Scatter blanched, slivered almonds over top.
15. Bake until top is golden, about 45 minutes, or until cake tester comes out clean.
16. Pour syrup over hot cake.
17. Poke cake gently with a toothpick to help cake absorb syrup.
18. Serve when cake is cool and syrup has been absorbed.
19. This cake is great served with a dollop of very lightly-sweetened whipped cream.
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