Hurricane baking: almond cake

What do you do when you’re weathering off a hurricane at a friend’s house? Well, after watching a few movies, you definitely decide to bake with whatever you have in the pantry.

That’s how this dairy-free almond cake was born so, in a way, thanks, Irene!

You’ll need:

• 1/2 cup ground almonds (ground roasted unsalted almond in a food processor with a T of AP flour)
• 1 cup AP flour
• zest of 1/2 lemon
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1.5 t baking powder
• 1 t salt
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 3 T vanilla almond milk
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 5 T honey
• 1 t ground ginger
• 1 t ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup wild Maine blueberries
• 2 heaping t raspberry jam

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grind the almond to a fairly fine powder – don’t let it get to almond butter! Sift almonds and flour together in a large bowl. Add ginger, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder and set aside.

2. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, honey, and almond milk. Slowly add in the olive oil, keep whisking together. Add in the fresh lemon zest and juice.

3. Pour in the egg mixture into the flour mixture and fold in with a spatula until smooth.

4. Pour batter into a greased 9 inch round pan or 9 inch loaf pan. Smooth top and bake in the oven for approximately 35-40 minutes until the top is slightly cracked and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

5. While the cake cools and before you invert it onto a platter, make the glaze. In a microwave, heat up the blueberries and jam in a deep bowl for about 1.5 minutes. Let cool and thicken slightly before pouring over the cake.