Amazing almond cake...with a dash of rum if you desire

A few weeks ago I was invited to dinner at a friend's house here in Cairo. He was making Indian and Pakistani style food, and I told him I would bring dessert. Having converted to a low impact, mostly grain-free, sugar-free way of eating after the New Year (with a few slip-ups here and there), I racked my brain and my cookbooks for inspiration. Suzanne Pirret, in her book "The Pleasure is All Mine" had a lovely recipe, called "Cake" which seduced me by its simplicity (and possibly also by her witty writing). Her recipe used grams which I converted into cups for the American kitchen, although I personally like using a small kitchen scale and measuring ingredients in grams.


This cake improves with age (as my friend N exclaimed the next day while toting a slice of it to the cafe to have with our morning coffee and gossip), and you can add all sorts of variations. Suzanne suggests orange zest, raisins or rosemary. I added a bit of lemon extract which was a lovely pairing with the almond.

Cake

Recipe courtesy of Suzanne Pirret, from her book "The Pleasure is All Mine," with my own modifications:

1/2 cup (4 oz. or 115 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup (150 g) Z Sweet* (or 2/3 cup erythritol + scant 1/2 tsp powdered stevia extract -or- 6 drops stevia liquid)
2 cups (230 g) almond flour (I used Bob's Red Mill, but you could also try the Honeyville brand)
1 tsp lemon extract (or almond, orange, coconut, etc)
5 eggs, room temperature
A shotglass or two of aged rum if you're feeling daring (optional)

*Z Sweet is a brand name alternative sweetener which is a mix of erythritol and stevia.

Beat the softened butter  in a bowl until it is "similar in creaminess to a ridiculously expensive face cream-- think Crème de la Mer."

Mix in the Z Sweet or erythritol/stevia combination, then the almond flour.

Add the extract and then the eggs, incorporating one at a time.

Turn into a buttered or greased pan (such a glass 8" x 8" pan) lined with a square of parchment paper as baked goods made with alternative sweeteners can stick like mad, "or whatever seems appropriate" and bake at 325 degrees "until the aromas of a decadent little Parisian bakery have drifted through your home--about 45 to 55 minutes."

And my favorite part of the recipe:

Now it really needs to cool before devouring, but before it does, pour a glass of an aged rum for yourself, such as a twenty-three-year-old Ron Zacapa Centenario, then pour half down that long crack in the middle of the cake. Just like your granny used to do.

I left the rum out of my cake, as some of the guests don't drink alcohol. The cake got rave reviews. Thanks Suzanne!