“Albert Adrià of the legendary El Bulli was the first to develop the idea of cooking a light-as-a-feather cake in the microwave, a technique that works equally as well with this almond financier recipe – warm cake straight from the ‘oven’,” says Quade. “Salted liquorice is my preferred snack in the kitchen (I can thank my Danish genes for that) and pairing it with kaffir lime helps to balance the saltiness on the palate. Crystallising the blueberries is optional, but only takes a second and looks beautiful on the plate.”
Ingredients
Salted iquorice cream
Blueberry jelly
Almond cake
Method
Main
1.For salted liquorice cream, bring cream and glucose to the simmer in a saucepan over medium heat. Immediately pour into a blender, add liquorice and blend until only very small pieces of liquorice remain. Pour into a bowl and freeze until chilled, then refrigerate until required.
2.For blueberry jelly, bring blueberries, sugar and 110ml water to the boil in a small saucepan over high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Squeeze excess water from gelatine, add to pan with lime juice, stir to dissolve gelatine, then transfer to a blender and process until smooth. Pour into a bowl placed over a bowl of iced water and refrigerate until set.
3.For almond cake, heat butter in a small saucepan over high heat, whisking continuously, until foaming and nut-brown (4-5 minutes). Set aside. Whisk sugar, eggwhite, vanilla paste and a pinch of salt until fluffy (2-3 minutes). Add brown butter, flour and almond meal, whisk to combine. Fill 4 disposable paper cups to a third full and microwave on high until set (about 50 seconds, depending on your microwave), set aside.
4.Shake blueberries with eggwhite and sugar in a bowl to coat. To serve, crumble cakes on serving plates, dollop with jelly and liquorice cream, then scatter with blueberries, lime leaves and rind.
Note We’ve increased the gelatine in the jelly for faster setting, but if you have more time you can make the jelly a day ahead using half the amount.
Notes
