Ingredients

• 3 standard eggs
• 8 oz. ground almonds
• 10 oz. icing sugar, sifted
• 3/4 pint cream, lightly whipped
• 5 rings tinned pineapple
• a few glacé cherries
• a little melted fat

Method

1. Brush a 10-inch diameter cake tin with melted fat, then line the base with a piece of greaseproof paper cut to fit. Brush the paper with fat as well.
2. Light the oven at Gas Mark 6 or 400°F so that it is ready and fairly hot for baking the cake.
3. Break the eggs into a mixing bowl and stand it over a pan of hot (not boiling) water. Using a rotary or wire whisk, beat the eggs until they are really stiff — a spoon drawn through the centre should leave a deep groove. This will take about 20 minutes.
4. Take the eggs off the heat and whisk for a further 5 minutes until cool.
5. Mix the ground almonds and sifted icing sugar together and, using a metal spoon, fold them into the egg mixture with a light flicking movement.
6. Immediately turn the mixture into the prepared tin, tip the tin to level it, and put it at once into the fairly hot oven for 20 to 25 minutes.
7. Turn the oven off. If you have an electric cooker, leave the door open until the cake is cool; with a gas cooker, leave the cake in the closed oven until it is cool. Turn out and remove the greaseproof paper.
8. At least an hour before serving, spread the top of the cake with whipped cream and decorate with a whirl of halved pineapple rings and glacé cherries.

Notes