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Grape & Almond Loaf

Serves
Serves 8-10
Total Time
2 Hours 10 Minutes Plus Cooling
Ingredients
175g of unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
200g of seedless grapes
3 free range eggs
A few drops French almond natural extract
150g of self-raising flour
½ tsp of fine salt
100g of ground almonds
For the topping
75g of seedless grapes, halved
90-100g of icing sugar
Method
Step 1

Preheat the oven to 160°C, gas mark 3. Grease and line a 900g loaf tin with baking parchment. In a large mixing bowl, use electric beaters to cream the butter and caster sugar for 3-4 minutes, until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then beat in the almond extract.

Step 2

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt and almonds, then fold into the wet ingredients until combined. Stir through the grapes, then spoon the mixture into the loaf tin, levelling the top. Bake for one hour to one hour and 10 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 20 minutes, then carefully transfer to a wire rack.

Step 3

As soon as the cake is on the wire rack, place the halved grapes in a small roasting tin with two tbsp water. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes, until soft but still just holding their shape, then remove and lift the grapes onto a plate. Add another 1 tbsp water to the roasting tin and scrape up the inky grape juices with a wooden spoon. Adding a little at a time, stir in the icing sugar with a wooden spoon until you have a spoonable icing. Spoon over the cake and top with the roasted grapes. Cool completely before serving.

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