RASPBERRY AND ALMOND CAKE

Steps:

• Pre heat the oven to 170°c (approx. 325°f) and line a 23cm cake in with parchment paper and grease with butter or non- stick spray.
• Place the ground almonds, butter, sugar and eggs in a bowl and mix with an electric mixer until well combined.
• Remove the bowl from the mixer stand and fold in the self- raising flour until it is all folded in and no dry powder can be seen.
• Add both the vanilla and almond extracts and mix well.
• The mixture may seem dry and thick and not smooth like a cake batter should be, if this is the case add the milk one tablespoon at a time and mix between each addition of milk. You may need to use more or less milk than the recipe asks for depending on how thick your mixture is. The finished mix should be fairly smooth and have the consistency of any other typical cake batter.
• Once the mixture is ready, pour half of the batter into the prepared cake tin. Gently smooth the batter and spread it out evenly.
• Top the layer of cake batter with the fresh raspberries spreading them out evenly. Pour the remaining batter over the raspberries and spread it out so that no raspberries can be seen. It may be easier to spread the mixture out using your fingers instead of a spoon.
• Once the raspberries have been covered and the cake mixture has been evenly spread out, top the cake with the flaked almonds before using the back of a spoon to gently press the almonds into the cake so that they get stuck in the cake batter.
• Place in the middle of the oven for 50 minutes. Once the timer goes insert a skewer or tooth pick into the cake and it should come out clean (if the toothpick hits a raspberry it may come out wet, so try testing the cake with a toothpick a few times to double check)
• Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool further, it doesn't have to cool completely before eating.
• Dust with some icing sugar before serving. The cake tastes best whilst still slightly warm. It should be stored in an airtight container once it has cooled completely.