Almond Pumpkin Cake

Recipe first, chat later.

250g ground almonds
200g sugar
6 eggs
1 tin of pumpkin puree (425g)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon

Whisk eggs, then add pumpkin. Finally mix in dry ingredients. Pour into greased and lined springform pan. Cover with foil. Bake at 190C/Gas 5/375F for approximately 1 hour, removing foil after 40 mins.

Now the story. I was looking for a cake for book club. I remembered I had a tin of pumpkin puree and suddenly felt that it was the only way to go. But every recipe I looked at seemed unnecessarily complicated - too many steps, too many ingredients, frosting, cute cut-outs…..I wanted the deliciousness of pumpkin pie in the easiest possible format.

So, I dug out the amazing recipe given to me by a friend when I first was trying out gluten free- bless you Anne-Marie, I think every time I use this recipe. I don’t know if you’d recognise it now - when you wrote it out for me, must be ten years ago or more, it was a Clementine Almond cake that began with boiling clementines to a pulp.

One day when I needed to take a cake somewhere and didn’t have time for boiling up the fruit, I used a jar of Bonne Maman jam instead. Rhubarb, I seem to recall. Since then, apricot, gooseberry, plum….and now pumpkin. When lazily/efficiently using a jar of jam I reduced the sugar, so I stuck to that with the tin of pumpkin and added the cinnamon. It was so amazing - half went at book club and I must confess that of the half I left at home, only the tiniest section of one sliver was left over to the morning. Playing fair, I halved that morsel when I was first down in the morning - and left one for John.

There was nothing left to take photos of - so dang it, I just had to make it again! A different brand of pumpkin gave a slightly more cakey texture rather than the smooth silkiness of the first, but still delicious. Naturally with a cakey texture, ice cream was called for.

Incidentally, when I first ordered the new brand from Sainsbury’s (old one no longer available at Tesco’s) they were unable to provide it so sent me a bag of jelly beans instead. Can anyone think of a situation where jelly beans are an effective substitute for pumpkin puree?