Coffee and Almond Cake...

For a while now, I have been wanting to make a coffee and walnut  cake that was featured in an old 1970's magazine that belonged to my Mother, but the elaborate icing was just not my thing! Last week whilst going through a new book called 'Cardamom Trail by Chetna Makan', I came across a recipe for an Almond and Coffee Cake that sounded so good. This is my version...

Espresso and Almond Cake

Ingredients:

250 grams caster sugar
250 grams butter, softened
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup almond meal
220 grams cake flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons Baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
60 ml milk
4 tablespoons instant espresso powder
2 tablespoons  boiling water

Preheat the oven to 180° C. Grease a 10 cup bundt tin.
Cream the butter and sugar until light and flour. Add the eggs, be at a time. Add the almond meal. Sift the flour, salt, baking powder and cardamom together. . Fold into the butter mixture. Lastly,, fold in the liquid ingredients. Pour the batter into the greased, and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a skewer come, out clean. Remove from pan, place the tin on a wire rack and leave to cool. Once cool, turn the cake out of the tin.
If desired, drizzle with the ganache.
Note: due to the almond meal, this cake will keep well for a few days.

Ganache:
50 grams dark chocolate, broken into small pieces
100 ml fresh cream

Heat the cream in a microwave safe bowl, until just starting to come to a boil. Add the chocolate and stir until melted and silky smooth.