Advocaat Cake

Ingredients

Sponge: 100g plain flour; 25g cornflour; 4g baking powder; 4 eggs, separated; 80g + 40g caster sugar

Topping: 60g sliced blanched almonds; 300ml double cream; 50g caster sugar; 10ml kirsch (optional); ½ tsp vanilla essence; 200ml advocaat (needs to the thick advocaat, not the thin export version); glacier cherries (optional)

to make the sponge

sponge is based on the Biscuit Moka recipe from Patisserie Christophe Felder

Sift flour with baking powder and cornflour
Beat egg whites at medium speed to soft peaks. Add 80g of sugar to the whites and beat to a smooth and glossy meringue
Beat egg yolks with the remains 40g of sugar till pale and thick.
Fold in egg white meringue
Fold in flour mix
Prepare 20cm round springform baking tin with greaseproof paper
Bake at 180℃ for 20-30 minutes till done (push a skewer in - should come out clean) and lightly browned. Cool on rack

Toast the almonds for up to 10 minutes in an oven at 180℃ - be careful they don't burn
Whip the cream with the sugar till stiff. Fold in kirsch and vanilla essence
Slice cake in half (horizontally) so you have two discs. Make a sandwich with the two halves by spreading equal quantities of advocaat and cream - not too thickly
Spread a layer of cream on the side of the sandwich (i.e. the curved outside of the cylinder) and press on the toasted almonds. This is usually a messy business.
Place on a cake stand or plate
Spread a thin layer of cream on top to seal (could also use thing layer of apricot jam)
Pipe cream round edge of top to create a barrier. You can also pipe straight across 3 times to form 6 triangular wedges on top.
Fill the areas between the piped cream by spooning in advocaat to form a nice smooth glossy coat.
To make even more gaudy decorate with glacier cherries