If you have leftover egg whites, this is the cake for them. I love the crumb of this cake which is tender and verging on sticky at the same time. It has a fantastic nutty flavour with a subtle lemon undertone. I have made this before using ground almonds in place of the hazelnuts and it is every bit as good. It’s also a novel experience to make a cake without any butter or egg yolks!
Ingredients
• 285g ground hazelnuts
• 300g caster sugar
• 8 large egg whites
• Zest of 1 lemon or half an orange
• 85g plain flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Butter a 23cm springform cake tin, lining the bottom with baking parchment.
2. Mix your ground nuts with the sugar.
3. Whisk the egg whites (I recommend a handheld electric whisk) and half a teaspoon of salt until you have stiff peaks.
4. Add the zest to the sugar and nut mixture, and fold it gently into your egg whites.
5. Sieve the flour into the mixture bit by bit, folding gently again.
6. Pour the mixture into your prepared tin and bake for almost an hour, or until a fine skewer comes out clean.
7. Let it cool in the tin for 10 minutes before cooling on a wire rack.
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