Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Spray or grease a baking tray with butter.
To make the base, cream the softened butter and icing sugar together and add the flour to make the dough, or place all three ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and pulse to blend until just pulling together into a dough.
Press the dough into the greased tray and keep it in the fridge until the oven has reached the correct temperature.
Bake for 25 minutes until evenly golden brown.
Turn the oven down to 150 °C.
To make the filling, beat the eggs and castor sugar well but not until fluffy. If the eggs and castor sugar are beaten until fluffy, the cake is spongier and light. Up to you!
Add the lemon juice, lemon rind, flour and baking powder and mix until smooth (a wire whisk works well).
Pour the filling onto the baked crust, sprinkle over the flaked almonds if using them and bake at 150 °C for 40 minutes. The filling should be set and golden brown but it should still jiggle a little at the touch.
Allow to cool completely before cutting into squares.
Sift over icing sugar before serving.
Extract from “Friends and Family” by Nicky Stubbs, published by Human & Rousseau.
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