Cooking Spain Region by Region: Aragon: Rejanes:(Almond Sponge Cake)

 I´m finally back! It´s been awhile,   I´ve been meaning to make this cake for awhile now but I´ve been busy cooking and baking other things,plus I haven´t had much time for blogging. Another reason for my lack of blogging recently is that I have something baking...yes, that´s right...I´ve got my own little bun in the oven!!

I decided to make this cake as I like all the ingredients, although it doesn´t appear to be very well-known. I´ve adapted the recipe from a book from the library about " La cocina de Aragon" although I don´t remember the title very well. Although quite a plain sponge cake, it´s lovely, light and very spongy....I think it´s ideal to have at breakfast and dipping it in your Caola Cao or other chocolate drink..or failing that, to have with a nice cup of tea. It was a big hit with my husband & daughter too!The recipe was a little incomplete as it didn´t give the amount of flour needed, the size of tin needed nor the temperature of the oven so a little bit of guesswork was used but all in all I was quite pleased with how it turned out!

Ingredients:
150g  unsalted butter,at room temperature
150g sugar
8 eggs
150g ground almonds
2 tbsp baking powder
around 70g plain flour(this was where the guesswork came in)

Method:
1. Grease and flour a loaf tin (I think my loaf tin was a little small as it rose quite a bit out of the tin)
2.Separate the yolks and the whites of three eggs, then beat the egg whites till they have stiff peaks and put the yolks to  one side.
3. Mix the ground almonds,sugar and butter(chopped into small pieces) until well combined.
4.Add the 5 eggs and the 3 yolks and mix well, then add the sieved baking powder and flour to the mixture and stir until well combined.
5. Add the egg whites"meringue" and fold gently into the mixture and then pour into the loaf tin.
6. Place the cake in a preheated oven at 160º C(a little guesswork was required here too,I think I started off with the temperature at 170ºC and then lowered it to 160ºC...it got a little golden brown on the outside so I also ended up covering it with tinfoil) and bake for 30 minutes or until a cocktail stick comes out clean when inserted.
7. Leave to cool for 5-10 minutes before removing from cake tin and then leave to cool on a cake rack.