Rick Stein's Majorcan Almond Cake with Almond Ice Cream Recipe

Ingredients

For the Almond Ice Cream

• 250g blanched almonds
• 1 litre water
• 300g caster sugar
• Finely grated zest 1 lemon
• 5cm piece cinnamon stick

For the Almond Cake

• 200g blanched almonds
• 5 large eggs, separated
• 200g caster sugar
• Finely grated zest ½ lemon
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• Butter for greasing the tin
• Icing sugar for dusting (optional)

Instructions

For the ice cream, put the almonds into a food processor and grind them to a fine powder. Put the water, almonds, sugar, lemon zest and cinnamon stick into a saucepan and bring very slowly to the boil, stirring frequently. As soon as the mixture comes to the boil, remove the pan from the heat and leave it to cool. Remove the cinnamon stick and churn in an ice-cream maker until smooth. Transfer to a plastic container, cover and freeze for at least six hours or until firm.

For the cake, preheat the oven to 170°C/Gas Mark 3. Grease a 23cm round cake tin with butter and dust it out with flour. Put the almonds into a food processor and grind them to a very fine powder. Using an electric whisk, beat the egg yolks and sugar together in a bowl for 4-5 minutes until pale and creamy. Fold in the almonds, lemon zest and cinnamon. The mixture will be quite stiff at this point.

Clean the beaters of the whisk, then use to beat the egg whites in a large clean bowl until they form soft peaks. Add two large spoonfuls of the egg whites to the mixture to loosen it slightly, then gently fold in the remainder. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 40 minutes until a skewer, pushed into the centre of the cake, comes away clean.

Leave the cake to cool in the tin, then turn out and dust with icing sugar if you wish. Serve cut into wedges with a scoop or two of the almond ice cream.