Makes 12 slices

If you've eaten the veal as a main course, then I think I'd go on to the flourless chocolate orange cake on page 274. Cook that in a 9 inch rather than an 8 inch pan and omit the leaveners. And you can make it go even further by serving, alongside a bowl of raspberries over which you have finely grated the zest of an orange and dusted with confectioners' sugar.

This, however, is a huge cake, and needs no augmentation. Indeed, it really needs nothing further at all. It's astonishing how buttery it tastes, given that there is not—obviously—an ounce of butter in it. As with the chocolate orange cake, the flour is replaced with ground almonds—and cooked, cooled, puréed fruit provides moistness and flavor.

For the apple purée:
3 tart eating apples, such as Braeburns
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons sugar

For the cake:
almond oil/flavorless vegetable oil to grease pan
1¾ cups superfine sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
8 eggs
½ cup slivered almonds
3¼ cups ground almonds

To decorate:
1 teaspoon confectioners' sugar

Peel, core and chop the apples roughly. Put them in a saucepan with the lemon juice and sugar, and bring the pan to a gentle boil over a medium heat. Cover the pan and cook over a low heat for about 10 minutes or until you can mash the apple to a rough purée with a wooden spoon or fork. (You should have about 1 heaped cup of purée.) Leave to cool.

Preheat the oven to 350°F; oil a 10 inch springform pan with almond oil or a flavorless vegetable oil and line the bottom with parchment paper.

Put the cooled purée in the processor with the eggs, ground almonds, superfine sugar and 1 tablespoonful—or generous squeeze—of lemon juice and blitz to a purée. Pour and scrape, with a rubber spatula for ease, into the prepared pan, sprinkle the 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.

Note:
If you'd like, by all means, mix in a pinch or so of ground cinnamon with the confectioners' sugar before you sift it on to the cake at the end.

Copyright © 2007 by Nigella Lawson. All rights reserved.