Just Can't Re-zest

I'm no expert on the art of making cakes. Mine are never towering perfect structures, iced and decorated like castles or princesses. More they are squat affairs, dense and moist with ground almonds, never too sweet.

More of a pudding cake than a tea time one, and less of an event at that. I don't generally go in for icing - it seems to me to be gilding the lily somewhat - an unnecessary extravagance which detracts from the slightly chewy crust of the cake which is my favourite bit. An icing like this, though, is another matter altogether.

Basic it may seem, but its flavour is unrivalled. It reminds me of the sherbert dibdabs or fountains I used to buy as a boy from the local sweetshop. It might, with the addition of a little water, make an incredible sorbet. An endeavour for a warmer day, perhaps. A simple cake - served with a dollop of good greek yogurt or tart creme fraiche, sweetened with just a smidgen of icing sugar.

Ingredients

Zest of
1 lime
1 lemon
1 orange

Juice of
1 lime
1 lemon
half an orange

80g ground almonds
100g plain flour
3 medium eggs
250g butter at room temperature
250g golden caster sugar

For the icing:
Juice of 1 lemon
150g icing sugar

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C. Cream together the butter and sugar in a large bowl. Add the eggs, a bit at a time. Don't worry if the mixture looks a little curdled, it will sort itself out. Mix the almonds and flour together and fold into the cake mixture. Fold in all the zest and mix in the juice. Pour the mixture into a 20cm cake tin lined with greasproof paper and spread with butter. Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes. Test it with a skewer - if it comes out clean it's done...

When the cake is cool, make the icing by whisking the icing sugar with lemon juice. Drizzle it over the cake. You could, if you liked, decorate it with some silver balls or, as I did, scatter over some edible silver leaf. A pretty little thing.