Cooking and conversation

Almond

, coconut and raspberry cake

Oh, what a week! You know that feeling when you start out a week with a plan (quite probably my first mistake) and everything starts to go pear-shaped from there? Well, this has been one of those weeks. There has been laughter and some tears, quiet moments and times of avid conversation, a fair bit of ‘will we, won’t we’, and underpinning it all, there has been food. I often say to my husband that I think I was brought into this world to feed people, big and small, for my default position in both happy and challenging times is to head into the kitchen and cook. It grounds me in a way that nothing else can – I feel my shoulders drop, my focus sharpen, my thoughts settle, and then there is the quiet joy of sharing whatever it is that I’ve made with others. It always turns my world the right way up again. This slender cake, with its beautiful moist texture and delicate flavour, is a complete and utter winner and is going on the menu for my next cooking classes. Funny how life works out at times, isn’t it?

250g unsalted butter
100g almond meal
50g desiccated coconut
70g plain flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
7 large (from 70g eggs) egg whites, at room temperature
250g icing sugar mixture
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
icing sugar, for dusting
fresh or dried rose petals, to decorate, optional
softly whipped cream, crème fraîche or ice-cream, to serve

RASPBERRY PUREE

150g fresh (or frozen) raspberries
60g caster sugar
12g cornflour

RASPBERRY PUREE Put the raspberries and sugar into a small saucepan and