GENOA CAKE

Genoa cake image

Provided by lucyrita

Time 2h

Yield Serves 6

Number Of Ingredients 16

225 g butter or margarine, softened
100 g/ caster sugar
4 eggs, separated
5 ml almond essence
5 ml grated orange rind
225 g raisins, chopped
100g currants, chopped
100 g sultanas chopped
50g glace (candied) cherries, halved
50g glace (candied) cherries, whole
50g/ chopped mixed (candied) peel
100 g ground almonds
25 g almonds
350 g plain flour
10 ml baking powder
5 ml ground cinnamon

Steps:

1.Cream together the butter or margarine and sugar, then beat in the egg yolks, almond essence and orange rind.
2.Mix the fruit and nuts with a little of the flour until coated, then stir in spoonfuls of the flour, baking powder and cinnamon alternately with spoonfuls of the fruit mixture until everything is well blended. Whisk the egg whites until stiff, and then fold them into the mixture.
3.Spoon into a greased and lined 23 cm cake tin and bake in a preheated oven at 190 oCgas mark 5 for 30 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 160 oC gas mark 3 for a further 1.5 hours until springy to the touch and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin.
4.Decorate with whole almonds and glace cherries.