The thing about being stuck at home during a pandemic is all the sitting. Sitting exhausts me, as crazy as that sounds. And I do plenty of things to break up the sitting: walks, yoga, exercise bike, breakfast dishes, lunch dishes, dinner dishes, walk, walk, walk….. BUT my favorite thing to do is cook and bake – of course.

Saturday, I started noodling over some kind of nut cake to use up some almonds that I had languishing in the freezer. I wanted something uncomplicated (because one doesn’t want to spend too much time away from Netflix) and citrusy – along the lines of Karithopita, a Greek walnut cake made with whipped egg whites and bathed in a sugar/honey syrup, but not as sweet or involved as that.

I started by grinding the almonds in the food processor and since I was already using the food processor decided to go ahead and complete the recipe in it. This makes it a one (food processor) bowl cake.  Brushing the cake pan with olive oil and sprinkling with sugar is key, it gives the cake a sweet crunchy crust.

The cake came out moist with a slightly crunchy texture from the nuts and olive oil sugar crust, not too sweet, perfumed with tangerine zest Amaretto.  I like it with a dab of jam (apricot jam pictured) and sweetened whipped cream.  But plain with a cup of coffee or Earl Gray is also good. Because of the olive oil in the recipe the cake will stay moist up to 4 days without refrigeration which makes it a perfect make ahead dessert.

Apparently sitting is the mother of invention!