Ingredients:
1 3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 cups almond meal
3/4 cup teff grain
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3 eggs
2 lemons, zest only
Vanilla ice cream, to serve with the cake
For the cake:
1) Line the base of a cake pan with parchment paper and grease its sides lightly with butter. Preheat the oven to 350’.
2) Beat the butter and sugar till pale and whipped, either by hand in a bowl with a wooden spoon, or using a freestanding electric mixer.
3) Thoroughly combine the almond meal, teff grain and baking powder.
4) Beat about quarter of this dry mixture into the butter-sugar mixture. Then beat in a whole egg. Then—while steadily beating the mixture—another quarter of the dry ingredients, then the second egg, then a third quarter of dry ingredients, then the third egg, then the last quarter of the dry ingredients. Beat constantly.
5) Finally, beat in the lemon zest.
6) Pour, spoon or scrape the mixture into the greasy, parchment-lined pan and bake for about 40 minutes. It may seem wobbly, but if the cake is cooked, a cake tester should come out cleanish. Most significant, the edges of the cake will have begun to shrink away from the sides of the pan. Remove the cake from the pan to a wire cooling rack.
7) When cool, cut cake into square pieces.
For the plum compote:
Can be made 2 days ahead
2 pounds red plums, pitted, quartered
1 1/3 cups (approx) sugar, divided
2 cinnamon sticks
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
1) Combine plums, 1 cup sugar and cinnamon sticks in large saucepan. Scrape in seeds from vanilla bean; add bean itself.
2) Stir over low heat until plums are very tender and compote thickens, stirring often, about 45 minutes. Add 1/3 cup more sugar if desired.
3) Remove from heat. Cool completely. Transfer compote to bowl, discard vanilla bean and cinnamon sticks.
4) Cover; chill.