There is an almond tree in the field next door to us… I have told you about this tree in another article in my blog..on re-reading the article I realised that I haven’t told you about another Yannis and I should..however I will get around to that….

This “half-winter” that we are going through is ending and having walked by the almond tree all this past week when taking Farah out for her walks I noticed that it was in full bloom and I said to myself that I should definitely take some photos of it and make a dessert from its flowers..

And then the bees came as we say….In other words not bees but a storm with heavy rain yesterday and although I knew what I wanted to make and had bought the ingredients for it, when I went to collect some flowers unfortunately there were none!….

In the photographs you can see flowers but they are not from the almond tree… they are from the small cherry plum tree in the same field which suffered no damage from the heavy rain…So I used them instead..I decided to continue using the name almond cake even if the flowers are not from an almond tree… I hope next year I will be able to make it decorated with the real almond flowers.

You might say “many will see and few will understand” but what should I do? I’m a straight shooter :-)

I decided to make a cake to show off the coming springtime and to honour the humble almond ..So it has almond flour, almond essence and almond liqueur!

Only almond milk is missing but next time I will add that too just to try it out.

It’s an easy cake..just take it easy as it has a few stages to complete…

Let’s see them one by one..

Spring………etcetera, etcetera, etcetera and we haven’t even talked about strawberries, asparagus and all the beauty of springtime.

Returning to the house today with the dog after a long walk I went past an Almond tree in a field right next door to our house..It wasn’t in our garden but I think of the field next door as part of our garden.. :)

I really love almond trees when the trees are in bloom but also when they have their nut-like seeds called drupes on them. I remember this tree from my childhood. It was already quite tall and as I am nearly 50, it must be 60 or 70 years old. It doesn’t look it’s age even though it is only watered by sporadic rainfall in the park.

This year as during the previous autumn and winter we had a lot of rainfall, the Almond tree was full of drupes.

They are still unripe, called ‘tsagala’ locally but they are edible..

You can cut them easily as their shell has not hardened and they are perfect to make a pickle, to eat unripe, to eat with a little fresh cheese and honey..

If you happen to pass by an Almond tree and it still has green drupes on it, try them…

I should say it is one of the most beautiful trees to have in your garden..even a small one. The flowers are wonderful which bloom at the end of winter heralding the start of springtime.