Chocolate Almond Cake

By Alice | Published: June 10, 2010

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mdbay_jun10_007I made Elizabeth David‚Äôs Chocolate Almond Cake again, this time for my mother’s birthday celebration. It is such a good cake anyway but I love it because it so happens to be gluten free so I can make it for my family. It is made with almonds rather than flour so it has that lovely brownie type moistness. Sometime I would like to give it a go with some other flavours added, orange would probably be awesome.

I kept it straight chocolate on this occasion as I wanted to also make a ginger ice-cream to go on the side. To do this I made a vanilla ice-cream then just before I was putting it in the freezer to set I mixed through lots of chopped crystallised ginger and little pieces of dark chocolate. Crystallised ginger is quite sweet anyway so I kept the vanilla ice-cream on the less sweet side. I however think this could perhaps be made with shop-bought vanilla ice cream – just get a tub of it and mix through the ginger and chocolate pieces. I got the idea from having tried a Waitrose version at Simon’s parents house, my mum loves ginger so I had to give it a go. It was a success! Definitely a good combination.

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17 Comments

  1. hearblack
    Posted June 10, 2010 at 2:09 pm | Permalink

    an impressive book collection!

    • Alice
      Posted June 12, 2010 at 10:15 am | Permalink

      This is my dad’s house, he has a huge amount of books :)

  2. Cathy
    Posted June 10, 2010 at 3:51 pm | Permalink

    The cake looks divine, what a clever idea to put those candles on there (are they tea lights?).

    I’ve recently been trying gluten free cooking having been given the Harry Eastwood book ‘Red Velvet Chocolate Heartache’. There’s a lot of cooking with almond’s instead of flour, but also, using swede, turnip and courgette etc. to make scrumptious cakes.

    • Alice
      Posted June 12, 2010 at 10:18 am | Permalink

      I’ve been meaning to get that book, it’s been on my wishlist for a little while. I will have to get it soon! The candles were some small ones that I had kicking about for a while. The wax was quite melty and would have spilled over onto the cake but they weren’t lit for too long so it was fine :)

  3. Allison
    Posted June 10, 2010 at 4:21 pm | Permalink

    Yum!
    Oh that last photo of the rain covered roses is so pretty!

    • Alice
      Posted June 12, 2010 at 10:19 am | Permalink

      Rain on roses is a good combo I think :)

  4. Mallory
    Posted June 10, 2010 at 5:07 pm | Permalink

    That is such a beautiful cake. & I’m sure it was positively delicious as well.

  5. Kate
    Posted June 10, 2010 at 5:52 pm | Permalink

    I’ve been wanting to try a gluten-free cake, and that one looks smashing. Thank you for the link to the recipe.

    Such beautiful photos, especially the roses in the rain.

    • Alice
      Posted June 12, 2010 at 10:20 am | Permalink

      If you make it I hope it goes well! :)

  6. Louise
    Posted June 10, 2010 at 9:20 pm | Permalink

    That cake sounds absolutely delicious! The candles are lovely.

    • Alice
      Posted June 12, 2010 at 10:21 am | Permalink

      I had the candles for a while and couldn’t find a good use for such small ones until I had the idea to put them on a cake :)

  7. mlle paradis
    Posted June 11, 2010 at 1:35 am | Permalink

    yum! happy birthday to your mum!

  8. eve
    Posted June 11, 2010 at 12:00 pm | Permalink

    pretty cake! and i love that wall of books…

    • Alice
      Posted June 12, 2010 at 10:22 am | Permalink

      This is my dad’s house, he has many many books :)

  9. green apple sorbet
    Posted June 21, 2010 at 9:52 pm | Permalink

    The cake looks delicious Alice, I will definitely give that recipe a try! Love the piñata too :)