Serves 16
250g butter, softened
1¼ cups caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
3 eggs
1 cup self-raising flour
⅔ cup plain flour
½ cup ground almonds
2 cups raspberries
Almond Topping
⅓ cup plain flour
2 tbsp caster sugar
30g butter, diced
⅓ cup flaked almonds
Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a deep 22cm-square cake tin and line base and sides with baking paper. Ensure paper extends 2cm above the rim of the tin.
To make the almond topping, sift flour into a small bowl and add sugar.
Rub in butter with your fingertips then fork through almonds. Set aside while you make the base of the cake.
Using an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar and vanilla together until pale and fluffy.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gently fold in combined sifted flours, ground almonds and a pinch of salt.
Spread mixture into the prepared tin and top with the raspberries.
Sprinkle almond topping over raspberries. Bake for about 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Cool in the tin for 5 minutes before lifting out carefully onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Cut into squares and serve.
Tip: For the variation Blueberry & Almond Slab Cake, replace the raspberries with the same quantity of blueberries.
Recipes and images are extracted from Margaret Fulton’s Baking Classics by Margaret Fulton (Hardie Grant Books, $39.95); available in stores nationally and online from April 1.
