Pomegranate Jewel Cake

Photo Credit: Lisa Buchanan

Almost every Tuesday at United Way the lovely ladies on our annual campaign team coordinate bringing a cake or a tasty bakery goody to the office for us all to enjoy. Sometimes they are homemade and sometimes they are store bought.

A few weeks ago one of the members of our team, Lisa, made a Pomegranate Jewel Cake and brought it in for all of us to enjoy. The recipe below was passed onto my from Lisa and the photos are hers as well. This was definitely a tasty treat! Bon appetite & enjoy!

Pomegranate Jewel Cake

(Nigella Lawson, Feast) [Comments in square brackets are Lisa’s]

For the cake:

• 8 eggs (separated)
• 300g ground almonds
• 1 pinch salt
• 300g caster sugar [1.5 cups] [Remember: this is a weight measure converted to volume, so it will be different if you use regular granulated sugar.  Caster sugar (not to be confused with icing sugar) is easy to find; Redpath calls it "Instant Dissolving Sugar"]
• zest 1 lemon
• zest 1 orange

To finish:

• 2 pomegranates [or 1 pomegranate + ½ cup pomegranate juice]

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180C [350F].  Grease and line a 23cm spring form pan.
2. Separate the eggs, putting the white into a large grease-free bowl, and the yolks into a separate bowl.  Whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they are stiff but not dry and then whisk in 100g of sugar before putting them to one side. 
3. Add the remaining 200g sugar and zest to the yolks and beat until the mixture is light and dry, then beat in the ground almonds.  This will be very thick and heavy, so lighten it with a good dollop of whisked egg whites before folding the rest of them into the mortar-thick, yellow almond mixture: it is easiest to fold in the remaining egg whites in thirds.  You need to work firmly, but gently, so everything is well combined without the mixture losing its air. 
4. Pour into the lined and greased tin and bake for about 40 minutes, though check at 30 as you don't want this to scorch.  If the cake is brown enough, while still gooey in the middle, loosely cover with a sheet of foil. 
5. As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, juice one of the pomegranates [or use 1/2 cup bottled pomegranate juice; juicing those suckers is messy business] and pour the juice over the cake while it is still hot and in its tin.  Let the cake cool and absorb the pomegranate juice and leave until cold before unspringing from the tin.  Place the cake on a stand or plate, and then cut the other pomegranate in half and bash out the seeds over the cake [again, the bashing is messy, so I do my usual tidy seeding method and sprinkle the seeds over the cake.] 

Photo Credit: Lisa Buchanan