I guess, I was culturally destined to love and drink tea. My childhood and adolescent memories are full of tea moments. My grandma offered me tea to calm me down, or have a conversation with me, or talk about school progress, or about my friends. It was a quiet time of emotional connection and multiple revelations. We had it fresh, strong and with milk. The first thing that was given to me when I got sick was a cup of tea, and it always made me feel better.

So tea was important throughout my life. We had it with food, without food, between meals, with milk, with lemon and sugar, and just plain with a piece of  dry fruit, homemade jam or honey. When my grandmas heard a knock at the door, they rushed to the kitchen to put the kettle on. All casual conversations took place over tea. Sometimes too much tea.

Our friends were not expected to warn us about their stopping by, there were no cell phones then, so we had to be always prepared to serve our teas with something like pryaniki (cookies), cakes, or sushki () alongside with the tea. It was more than food. It was a way to show respect. The words, “more tea?” would be heard every now and then during the conversation.

The tea was supposed to be strong, fresh, hot, bitter (to a non tea drinker) and made from natural tea leaves. Weak and warm tea was an insult and the hosts would be judged by their visitors later on. You wouldn’t want to be in that place. Weak tea was considered to be unmanly, inhospitable and downright unacceptable.

If you are a tea drinker you will understand that.

My habit of sitting with a nice cup of tea is a lifelong ritual. I make sure I have a cup of tea when I cook, read, type, work…, and even now, a nice cup of tea is sitting next to me.

I also remember my grandma saying, “I need to bake something. If somebody comes, it will be embarrassing not to offer anything with tea.”

With that thought and sweet memories in mind I am offering my readers a recipe of a simple and delicious cake. It doesn’t require baking skills, it is not time consuming and can last for a few days.

Just remember to prepare a cup of fresh tea before you start baking.

Here we go.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter the baking pan. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler, stirring it gently until it is smooth. Remove it from the boiler and leak the wooden spoon with the chocolate.

Place 10 ounces of almond paste, two sticks of room temperature unsalted butter, a tbs of vanilla into the electric mixer bowl and beat on medium speed until it’s smooth. Add six eggs, one at a time and continue mixing until smooth. Reduce the mixing speed and add ½ cup of all purpose or almond flour mixed with a teaspoon of baking powder. Continue mixing until the batter gets homogeneous.

Finally, add the melted chocolate by manually folding the chocolate with the batter creating a marble design if you like. Pour batter into a buttered baking pan and bake for about 40 min at 350 degrees.

Go for a walk or read a book. It’s going to be ready in 35-40 min. It won’t burn because the baking temperature is pretty low. Insert a skewer into the middle to make sure it’s done. Remove from oven and cool it down. Then remove from the pan. This cake needs to cool down completely and stand for a while.

It tastes better the next day and stays fresh for a few more days, if it’s still there. You can have your afternoon tea or coffee with this cake for a week, adding fruit and nuts if you like.

Enjoy!

Oh, I hear a knock at the door, time to put the kettle on!

P.S. All the food featured in this post has been prepared and photographed by me.