This is based on a recipe I tore out of a cooking magazine ages ago. The ingredients are great, but the original methodology was daft – it involved throwing everything into the food processor and whizzing, which didn’t cream the butter and sugar at all. I reworked it using more traditional techniques and it’s become a recipe that I make all the time – simple to put together and easy to eat, without being heavy or cloying. It’s a good keeper too – the buttermilk helps it to stay moist for several days.
Buttermilk freezes very well, which is handy as I rarely get through an entire carton before it expires. I portion it out into ziplock bags and freeze it, usually in one cup serves.
I bake this recipe in a cast aluminium bundt pan and dress it with a simple dusting of icing sugar.
- 1 and 1/3 cups (200g) self raising flour
- 150g almond meal
- 200g caster (superfine) sugar
- 175g unsalted butter, softened
- 150ml buttermilk
- 3 large free-range eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- finely grated zest of 1 lemon (optional)
- jam/lemon curd
1. Cream together butter, sugar and zest, then mix in eggs and vanilla, beat well. Scrape down sides of bowl.
2. Stir together flour and almond meal in a separate bowl.
3. Into the butter/sugar/egg, mix in half the flour/almond, then the buttermilk, then the rest of the flour/almonds, mixing well after each addition.
4. Spoon half the mix into a well-oiled bundt pan, add some jam or lemon curd, then top with remaining mix, and bake in a preheated oven at 175C for 40 – 45mins.
5. Allow to cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn onto wire rack to cool completely. Dust with icing sugar before serving.
If you’re using a cast aluminium bundt, you’ll need to drop the oven temperature to about 160C. Also, the jam is optional and it may occasionally fall through to the bottom of the pan. The cake should work well unfilled – we just have so much jam that we’re always looking for ways to use it!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Mmmmmm. That looks gooood. Love the tweet feed.
I didn’t know you could freeze buttermilk!!!!! I’ve wasted so much over the years ….but not any more! You are such a font of good info,Celia.
Julie, I don’t know how it is for drinking once defrosted, but it’s certainly fine for cooking.
Dan, you need to get to Williams Sonoma and buy a Nordic Ware cake tin. If I was in the States, I reckon my collection would be twice as big!
Celia xx
If this is a family favourite, how come the extended family haven’t tasted it?
Because some of the extended family are “allergic” to wheat… :)
Just to let you know I made this yesterday to take to work, for all of us that worked the Monday before the Australia Day holiday. When my back was turned my colleague ate the last 4 slices!! It is one of the best cakes I’ve eaten, and like you I bake aaaallllll the time. Thank you so much for this recipe, I will be making it again and again!!
Deb, I’m so glad you liked this – thank you for letting me know! After I read your comment, I went and made one too, because I remembered I had buttermilk and homemade butter in the fridge, both of which needed using up. I’ve filled mine with some of Pete’s white nectarine and raspberry jam, which he made yesterday.
This is such a simple recipe to put together, and very versatile – I’ve baked it in mini bundt pans as well as muffin pans before (baking time obviously needs adjusting), and they were perfect. Please let me know if you ever think of some other clever way to bake it!
Oops, there goes the timer, better go take mine out! :)
Cheers, Celia
Celia
i made this cake!!!! too good to be true..and so easy! loved it…big hit for school recess as well….thanks
Monica
Hi Mon, thanks for letting me know! Haven’t seen you in ages, hope to catch up soon. Celia x
Thanks for this Celia…could be a new favourite! My husband came home with a request from his colleagues that I make the required birthday cake so the office wouldn’t have to resort to the standard Woolies Mudcake. So I tried this one (though I used the last of some scrummy blueberry jam as I didn’t have lemon curd) and wow it went down well!
Much appreciated,
Ray
Ray, I’m so glad it was a hit! Thanks for taking the time to let me know.. :)