Whole Lemon and Almond Cake

Step 1
Wash lemons well, then boil in a pot of water for about 45 minutes or until softened. Drain and cool for 15 minutes, then cut in half and discard seeds. Place halved lemons in a food processor and blend to a smooth pulp. You want to get about 1 cup of lemon pulp at this stage.

Step 2
Preheat your oven to 160ºC and grease and dust a 20-centimetre cake tin with some oil and plain flour to prevent the cake from sticking.

Step 3
In a mixing bowl, whisk the eggs then add all the wet ingredients: olive oil, vanilla essence and lemon pulp. Give it a good stir then add self-raising flour, raw sugar, almond meal and baking powder. Stir until well combined.

Step 4
Pour batter into the cake tin and top with a scattering of almond slivers and desiccated coconut. Cook in oven for 1 hour.

Step 5
To check if the cake is fully cooked, stick a skewer or chopstick into the middle. If it comes out clean, it’s cooked; if it comes out still sticky with batter then cook for a further 10 minutes.