Majorcan flourless lemon almond cake

For Mother's Day, my mum came over from Bristol and my sister Lizzie cooked us a lovely lunch of home-made moussaka and salad.  My job was to bring dessert, so I made this lemon and almond cake - it's a flourless recipe, as Lizzie is gluten-intolerant, but a very traditional Majorcan recipe rather than a cake with wheat-free flour, which I'm really not a fan of.  I much prefer to try and find an authentic recipe which never contained flour than substitute proper flour for something that I'm afraid always tastes to me a bit like sand!  This is a beautifully souffle-light cake, lovely a fresh for a Spring lunch.  

Ingredients

4 large free range eggs, separated

5 oz caster sugar
Grated zest of 2 lemons

½ tsp ground cinnamon

7 oz ground almonds

Pinch of salt

Icing sugar, for dusting

2 tbsp flaked almonds, for sprinkling

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C and grease and line 9 inch round cake tin.
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks, and set aside.
3. In a separate mixing bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar until pale, then beat in the lemon zest and cinnamon.
4. Use a large metal spoon to gently fold in the ground almonds and salt – the mixture will be quite stiff at this point.
5. Add two large spoonfuls of the beaten egg whites to the mixture to loosen it slightly, then gently fold in the remainder.
6. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 40 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
7. Leave the cake to cool in the tin, then turn out and leave to cool on a wire rack.
8. Dust with icing sugar and sprinkle with flaked almonds.  Serve with clotted cream.