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Spit cooking was the usual method of roasting in early times, and a tree cake was quite popular. It was baked on a hand-turned, tapered, wooden spit, set in front of an open fire, and it was made of a thin batter, ladled on slowly as it cooked. Each wafer-thin layer was toasted to a golden brown colour, and then another coating of fresh batter was poured on, to be coated in its turn. The tree effect was achieved by varying the rotating speed of the spit as fresh batter was poured over. Today, we have to adapt the technique, and the modern grill is most suitable. You can use a plain baking tin or spring-form tin for a basic cake, or you could try experimenting with different forms such as a gugelhupf or angel cake mould or with shapes that can be assembled later with apricot jam before being iced.

1. Beat the butter and caster sugar until pale and creamy, beat in the egg yolks one at a time, mix in the lemon zest, rum and almonds.

2. Sift together the flours, and beat two spoonfuls at a time into the egg mixture.

3. Whisk the egg whites in a spotlessly clean bowl until firm, then lightly fold them into the main mixture.

4. Lightly oil the chosen cake tin 24 cm (9 1/2 in diameter. Smooth 1 -2 tbsp of cake batter on the base and place under the grill.

5. Grill at 180 - 200°C (350 - 400°F) Gas 4 - 6 for 4 - 5 minutes until golden brown.

6. Remove from the heat and smooth over another thin layer of mixture. Cook again. Continue toasting the layers until all the mixture is used (about 16-18 layers) . Leave to cool in the tin. Unmould; brush with warm apricot jam and glaze with lemon-flavoured Glace Icing.

7. The cake keeps fresh for 2 - 3 weeks.

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