Buttery Almond Tart with Loquats

Buttery almond cake with a golden and crunchy crust and moist filling- my kind of cake.

Thanks to Hannes at Real Fresh Veg (here), I got my hands on some loquats. Do you know what they are?

They are a sweet and tangy fruit and to me they taste like a cross between an apricot and a plum. They are real memory food to me as we use to have a few trees in our garden in Pretoria, where I grew up.

As you might of seen from my minimal sweet offering on my page, most of the cakes I love to eat are almond based. I just love the texture of this fairly robust and easy to bake cake.

Seasonal Swaps: You can substitute any fruit in the cake as long as the fruit is not overly juicy. Figs would be an excellent substitute when in season.

TIP: roasting and blitzing your own whole raw almonds into a flour really enhances the almond flavour. Shop bought almond flour can be on the bland side.

A dollop of yogurt, creme fraiche or labneh.

a 23cm tart tin with a removable base

• a few tablespoons softened butter & sugar for the cake tin
• 145g cake flour
• 60g almond flour (see intro note)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• pinch good salt
• 170g unsalted butter at room temperature
• 160g granulated sugar (2 tbspn more for topping)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 80g Greek-style yogurt
• 350/400g loquats, half finely chopped, other half, halved

1. Preheat the oven to 180c, butter your tart tin well with butter, sprinkle with sugar, tip and tap out the excess. Place the tart tin on a large baking sheet, this ensures the tart can be moved easy in and out of the oven and the removable base stays in tact!
2. In a bowl, mix together the flour, almond flour, baking powder and pinch of salt.
3. In a stand mixer or hand held mixer, whisk the sugar and butter on a high until light and fluffy, scraping the sides every now and then, about 5 minutes.
4. Add the eggs, on at a time, while whisking to incorporate fully after each egg. TIP: The mixture might appear weird after the addition of the egg (like scrambled eggs), just keep on mixing until the batter comes together before adding the next egg.
5. Add the vanilla extract, mix well. Reduce the speed and gradually add the flour mixture followed by the yogurt, scraping the sides.
6. Add the chopped loquats and fold into the mixture. Scrape the cake into the cake tin evenly, arrange the halved loquats on top of the tart and sprinkle the tart with 2 tablespoons granulated sugar.
7. Bake, rotating the tart, once during baking. The tart is ready when golden and the fruit and sugar is starting to brown. I would check after 35 minutes or so.
8. NB: let the tart cool completely before removing it from the tart tin. Warm cakes are fragile and can easily break or fall apart. Enjoy with a dollop of something creamy.