This almond cake is considerably denser that the lightly textured white cake from our wedding but god it is delicious. I found it in Alice Medrich's book, Pure Desserts, which is just full of things I want to make (she's *awesome*). I tinkered a little bit with it, but basically, it's just as she wrote it. The raspberry came in with a sort of reduction syrup that was a complete improv, since the raspberry sauce I was going to make didn't work out (the frozen raspberries I bought tasted like the plastic bag they'd been frozen in). This is definitely an adult's dessert - it's too dense and rich and not-sugary to appeal to kid-type palates, but wow is it easy and calorically dangerous - one of my favorite kinds of danger :-)
Almond Cake:
Ingredients-
- 3/4 cup plus 2 tbs. (4 0z.) unblanched or blanched whole almonds
- 1 cup plus 2 tbs. sugar
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. pure almond extract
- 3 large eggs
- 1 stick of unsalted butter, cut into chunks and slightly softened
- 1 tbs. kirsch or tawney port (optional)
- 1/3 cup (1.5 oz.) all-purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp. baking powder
- powdered sugar and slivered almonds for dusting (optional)
Equipment-
- An 8 inch by 2 inch round cake pan
-PAM baking spray or a generous amount of butter to grease the pan with (this sucker likes to stick, so when I say generous, I mean *generous*).
-A food processor
Process-
1. Position rack in the lower 1/3 of over and pre-heat to 350. Generously grease the cake pan - see not above in Equipment. *If you want the cake to have a sort of crunchy crust, sprinkle sliced almonds into the empty buttered pan and spread as thickly as you like. Then sprinkle granulated sugar over the almonds. Pour the batter in as directed. When the cake is done, let it cool in the pan for 10 min. on a rack, then run a knife along the edge and un-mold it onto the rack to cool the rest of the way. I made it with this crust, and it was fantastic.
2. Place the almonds, sugar, salt and almond extract into the food processor and process until almonds are a pulverized coarse powder.
3. Add the eggs, butter and kirsch/port. Pulse to thoroughly blend.
4. Add the flour and baking powder and pulse until just blended (don't over blend).
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly.
6. Bake until the cake is golden brown on top and a toothpick comes out clean, about 40 minutes. It goes from underdone to crispy quickly, so start keeping an eye on it at 30 min.
7. Cool completely in the pan on a cake rack.
8. When cool, unmold the cake by running a knife around the edges of the pan and then inverting it onto a plate. Wrapped tightly in foil, it will keep really well for several days - in fact, it tasted even better the second day, so I would recommend making it ahead of time and letting it sit overnight.
9. Serve with the Raspberry Port Syrup, or with fresh fruit, whipped cream, custard, ice cream etc, etc, etc, or just pick it up with your hands and tuck in.
Raspberry Port Syrup:
Ingredients-
- 1 jar of red raspberry jam (Smuckers or Bonne Maman are good)
- 3 tbs. tawney port
- boiling water
Equipment-
- a bowl
- a 2-4 cup liquid measuring cup
- several small jars (like old jam jars)
- a strainer
- a spatula
Process -
1. Put the jam in the bowl and dilute it with a scant 1/4 of hot water. Mix until it has the consistency of a very thick soup. You want to be able to strain this, so if it isn't liquid enough, add hot water, 1 tbs. at at time, until it reaches the thick soup consistency.
2. A little at a time, pour the jam/water mixture through a strainer and into the liquid measure, making sure to press the liquid through with the spatula while the strainer catches the seeds.
3. Once all of the jam liquid is strained through, add the tawny port to taste. I went with a generous 3 tbs., but James and I both like port.
4. Seal it up and let it finish cooling before putting it in the fridge. It can be stored indefinitely as long as it's kept cold. It can be served straight out of the fridge or gently warmed up over cakes and ice creams etc.
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