It does not get more homey than this cake. Enjoy with a cup of hot chocolate or with a cup of coffee!

Serves 8-10

• 250g butter (plus 1 Tbsp butter for greasing the tin)
• 160g sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup full fat milk *
• seeds from 1/2 vanilla pod (or 1 Tbsp vanilla extract)
• 280g self-raising flour, sifted (plus 1 handful for dusting the tin)
• 1tsp baking powder
• 50g raw unsalted almonds, ground
• icing sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 180ºC.

Use a pastry brush and 1 Tbsp melted butter to grease the bundt cake tin really well. Take a small handful of flour and dust lightly around the inside of the greased tin. Turn upside down over your kitchen sink and knock gently to remove any excess flour.

Combine the butter and caster sugar in a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment until light and creamy.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Add the vanilla seeds and the milk and combine. At this point the mixture will probably look a little bit curdled. Don’t worry, it will improve when you fold in the dry ingredients.

Mix together the sifted flour, baking powder and ground almonds and carefully fold into the egg mixture.

To prevent the formation of air bubbles, spoon the batter into the tin somewhat slowly. To release any bubbles that may have developed, tap the tin gently on a work surface.

Bake for about 45-50 minutes or until a knife inserted in the thickest part of the cake comes out clean.

Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let the cake cool in the tin for 15 minutes. Then tap the tin firmly a few times and shake it gently to help loosen the cake. Invert the tin onto the rack, lift it off and let the cake continue to cool on the rack.

Use a fine-mesh sieve or flour sifter to dust the cake with icing sugar just before serving, as the sugar tends to melt into the cake as it sits.

*You could also use 200g of greek yogurt or 1 cup of orange juice instead of milk. You could also add some orange zest.