Books and cakes - 47

    "Lady Audley looked up from her occupation amongst the fragile china cups, and watched Robert rather anxiously, as he walked softly to his uncle's room, and back again to the boudoir. She looked very pretty and innocent, seated behind the graceful group of delicate opal china and glittering silver. Surely a pretty woman never looks prettier than when making tea. The most feminine and most domestic of all occupations imparts a magic harmony to her every movement, a witchery to her every glance. The floating mists from the boiling liquid in which she infuses the soothing herbs, whose secrets are known to her alone, envelop her in a cloud of scented vapour, through which she seems a social fairy, weaving potent spells with Gunpowder and Bohea. At the tea-table she reigns omnipotent, unapproachable ...."

    Remember that, ladies, the next time you put the kettle on!

    As you see, tea features in Lady Audley's Secret, the book the Cornflower Book Group has been reading this month, but cake does not. There is much eating of chops and veal cutlets and the like, but baked goods rarely figure, with only a passing reference to "warm French rolls", indigestible pastries and sweetmeats, and "biscuits and transparent bread-and-butter". Lady Audley is such a devious minx that I doubt she has the taste for cake, though I expect her step-daughter Alicia would like something plain but flavourful, of which the odd crumb might find its way to her dog Caesar.

    To go with the book, therefore, I've made Nigella's Damp Lemon and Almond Cake from How To Be A Domestic Goddess, a fitting accompaniment to a cup of tea made by a mere mortal rather than the "social fairy" of the passage above. It is indeed nicely damp, and the zing of the lemon zest and juice and the marzipan-like almondiness make it everything you hope it will be.

    On the subject of books and cakes, here's an excerpt from the section on almond and lemon in the excellent, compendious The Flavour Thesaurus by Niki Segnit:

"Ground almond soothes lemon's sharpness in cakes and tarts. In Kew, southwest London, deep little tarts called maids of honour are baked and sold at The Original Maids of Honour Shop. They're said to date back to the time of Henry VIII - in Hilary Mantel's novel Wolf Hall [post on it here; its sequel is due out soon], Thomas Cromwell sends flat baskets of them to console Anne Boleyn's ladies-in-waiting. The recipe is a secret, but broadly speaking they're puff pastry tarts with a cheesecake-like lemon and almond filling."

Comments

[Harriet]

This sounds like a lovely cake -- am I right in thinking it is wheat-free?

[Dark Puss]

Harriet, may I also commend the wheat-free Sephardic chocolate cake from Claudia Roden (dead easy to make too!).

[Dark Puss]

I think devious minxes would most certainly eat cake!

[Harriet]

Sounds wonderful -- where's the recipe?

[Dark Puss]

It is and you can vary the cooking time depending on how gooey you like your cake. I have found the recipe on-line here. Use a cake tin with a moveable base or you'll never get it out. Enjoy!

[Cornflower]

Almost - it has only 50g of flour in it and 250g of ground almonds. I should think you could omit the flour if necessary - it's main purpose seems to be to help incorporate the eggs.

[Cornflower]

May it give them indigestion then!

[Dark Puss]

How does it compare to the Claudia Roden orange and almond one?

[Cornflower]

I've never made (or eaten) the Claudia Roden one so I can't compare them on taste, but looking at the recipes, Nigella's is simpler as the lemons are just zested and juiced, whereas the Sephardic cake involves boiling the oranges and then pulping them. CR's recipe has no butter or almond essence, while N's includes both.

[ChrisCross53]

I've made this in the past, and it's lovely, but if you want to avoid wheat flour I think it would work with something like rice flour, or spelt flour, or a mix of the two. Spelt is good in bread but it is a bit heavy on its own in cakes.

[Dark Puss]

Thank you! I haven't made the CR version and I don't own that book by Nigella (or I wouldn't have bothered you with the Q).

Peter

[Cornflower]

Delighted to provide extra information where I can.

[MelD]

Ha - funny that this is a passage that I also especially registered!
I quoted it tomy daughter, a keen tea ceremonist!!
Most charming.

[Laura]

Just made this cake and am waiting for it to cool so I can try a piece. I notice in the recipe that Nigella recommends wrapping the cooled cake in foil and waiting a few days before eating....but I don't think I can wait that long! :)

[Cornflower]

I didn't wait, Laura!