Home › The Principles of Cookery › Hanover Cake
Hanover Cake
Take half a pound of almonds, blanched and pounded with a little rose-water, half a pound of sifted sugar, twelve eggs, leaving out half the whites, and the rind of a lemon grated very fine. Mix all well together, put the mixture into a baking-tin or pie-dish, and bake in a moderate oven for half an hour, or until it is a light brown.
A flourless almond cake leavened only by beaten egg — the whole thing stands or falls on how much air you get into the eggs and sugar.
- The hinge: beat the eggs properlyThere is no flour, no baking powder and no butter here, so the only lift comes from air whipped into the eggs with the sugar. Beat yolks, the six whites and the sugar to a pale ribbon that trails thickly from the whisk, then fold in the almonds in three additions so you do not knock the air out.
- AlmondsHalf a pound of blanched, pounded almonds is 225 g, or about 2¼ cups of shop-bought ground almonds (almond flour). If you grind your own, pulse in short bursts with a spoonful of the sugar to stop the nuts turning to paste.
- Rose-water"A little" in this context means 1 to 2 teaspoons. Modern rose-water varies enormously in strength; taste the batter before it goes in the tin, as too much reads as soap.
- EggsTwelve eggs, half the whites left out, means 12 yolks plus 6 whites — on modern large eggs, something like 400 g of egg in total. Eggs are often assumed to have run smaller than today's large, so if yours are large or extra-large you may prefer 10 yolks and 5 whites.
- Moderate oven350°F / 175°C. The cake is done when the top is light brown, the centre springs back and a skewer comes out clean.
- Tin and timingHalf an hour suits a fairly shallow tin, buttered and lined. In a deeper pie-dish this quantity of batter will need longer, and the surface may need a loose sheet of foil once it has coloured.
- CoolingEgg-and-almond cakes sink and go dense if moved hot. Leave it in the tin until barely warm before turning out.
- YieldA large cake — 12 to 16 slices. It is rich and keeps for three or four days wrapped; serve plain, or with a sifting of sugar and stewed fruit.
Cakes carrying the Hanover name appear in British cookery books through the nineteenth century, the label pointing to the House of Hanover, which held the British throne from 1714 to 1901. The recipe itself belongs to an older European family of flourless almond cakes — the same tradition as the Italian torta di mandorle and the Passover almond sponges — in which pounded nuts stand in for flour and whipped egg does all the lifting. Rose-water is often said to be a mark of the earlier style of sweet cookery, though here it is used only sparingly, alongside lemon rind. What the recipe does demonstrate plainly is a technique: that beaten egg alone can raise a heavy batter.