Tomorrow is Sile’s birthday and her request was to have a Cardamom cake for the occasion.
This is our current favourite cake and there is a copy of the recipe on my recipes page.
This time however I managed to persuade daughter Caitriona to make it for us and we experimented with making the whole thing in a food processor.
It worked beautifully.
Here is the new method.

225g (8oz.) Butter
225g (8oz.) Caster Sugar
175g (6 oz.)Walnuts
280g (10 oz.) Ground Almonds
90g (3 oz.) Nibbed Almonds
3 Large Eggs
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
Grated Zest and Juice of two small lemons
3 teaspoons Ground Cardamom.

Whizz the walnuts and the nibbed almonds in the processor until they are like coarse breadcrumbs.
Then tip these out and keep in a bowl.

If you haven’t been able to get ground cardamom you will have to bash some in their pods and grind the seeds yourself.

Bring the butter to room temperature, to soften it a little,(or put into a microwave for a few minutes at defrost)
Whizz the butter with the sugar in the processor until light and pale.
Then add all the other ingredients, including the nuts, and process until they are all well beaten together (not too much or the nuts will start to oil).
Line a 12″ round quiche tin or a Swiss roll tin with non-stick paper and spoon in the cake mixture.
Pre-heat the oven to Gas 3, 160C, 325F.
Cook at this temperature for 60 mts.
Check for with a fork or skewer to make sure the batter is cooked.
Leave it cool in the tin and then on a wire tray.

As it was a birthday I made a little basic icing by beating three table spoons of caster sugar with an egg white and a tablespoon of lemon juice and spreading this on the cake while it was still warm.
It is very crumbly but delicious.
Also note it is flour free therefore suitable for coeliacs.