Easy Almond Cake
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons softened unsalted butter
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons softened marzipan
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 6 large eggs
- 1 cup self-rising cake flour
- 10-inch springform tube pan or patterned ring mold, buttered and floured
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Chop the butter and marzipan to make them easier to break down, and put them in the bowl of the food processor, fitted with the metal blade, with the sugar.
- Process until combined and pretty well smooth.
- Add almond and vanilla extracts, process again, then break the eggs one at a time through the funnel, processing again each time.
- Mix the flour and tip down the funnel, processing yet again, and then pour the mixture into the prepared pan, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
- Bake for 50 minutes, but check from Then, when the cake looks golden and cooked and a cake tester or fine skewer (or a piece of spaghetti) comes out cleanish, remove from the oven and leave to cool in the pan before turning out.
- (This is when you will be feeling grateful if its the springform youre using.)
- The fact that you could easily get 12 slices out of this cake is another reason why it comes in useful when youve got people coming for dinner.
- That it keeps for a good week is another point in its favor; you dont have to be fiddling around with all the courses just before liftoff.
- And if you dont want to eat raspberries with it, like the rosemary cake its very good with apples.
- With this cake, I make a glorious pink apple puree.
- Either go for apples stewed in blood-orange juice (wonderful around February when the oranges are in), which gives a tenderly coral tint, adding a cinnamon stick or 1/2-1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon, or use red-skinned eating apples and dont peel before cooking them.
- In fact, theres no need to core them either, just chop the apples roughly and put them in a pan with some butter, lemon juice, cinnamon or cloves and, if theres some around, a slug of Calvados.
- Strain the apples when theyre cooked to an utterly yielding pulp, or push them through a food mill.
- If you want to smarten up the cake-plus-puree deal, then provide a bowl of creme fraiche (with or without Calvados and a little confectioners sugar stirred in) with some toasted slivered almonds on top.
- I am not someone who enjoys peeling and pithing oranges at great length, but sliced blood or ordinary oranges, with a syrup made by reducing equal volumes of juice and sugar to an almost-caramel, would partner an orange-zested version of this almond ring (the zest in place of vanilla) exquisitely.
butter, sugar, almond extract, vanilla, eggs, flour, ring mold
Taken from www.cookstr.com/recipes/easy-almond-cake (may not work)