N° 76: Almond Cake Perfection
I dare you to find a summer fruit it doesn't go with
Good morning,
I’ve made four almond cakes in the past couple of weeks. My love for them, and the enthusiasm voiced by those who tasted them, made me realize I should share the recipes. (Recipes, plural, because there are two: one I’ll call “classic,” shared below, and one I’ll call “honey- and date-sweetened—and gluten-free—”which I’ll share next time.)
I think I first made this style of simple almond cake (following David Lebovitz’s recipe, adapted from Lindsey Remolif Shere’s Chez Panisse Desserts recipe) almost twelve years ago, for my friend M’s baby shower. M is Spanish, and I wanted something rich with almonds and simple in the Iberian bizcocho style. It must have been there that T first tasted the cake a few months before her own birthday and asked me to make it for her. I’ve made it for her birthday many times since, including last month. And then, it seemed for a few weeks, I couldn’t stop making it: one as a thank-you gift, two for separate dinner guests…
If you’re interested in the nitty gritty of adapting the recipe, here are the
Key changes from the recipes by Lindsey Remolif Shere and David Lebovitz that inspired mine:
The almond mass:
Shere and Levovitz blitz store-bought almond paste (almonds+sugar syrup+flavoring) in the food processor.
I instead blitz whole almonds with sugar and honey.The sugar:
I found my cake to be sweet enough with significantly less sugar than the original recipes. And I use a combination of cane sugar and flavorful honey.The almond extract:
Shere adds no almond extract, while Lebovitz includes a whole teaspoon. I think there’s just enough heady almond flavor in the space somewhere between.
A preview of what’s coming next to Formal Assignment: a honey- and date-sweetened version of the almond cake, which also happens to be gluten-free and incredibly flavorful. I just need to type the recipe up, but here is a photo:
Finally, here are some recommendations for the week:
Northwest CT:
Coltsfoot Valley Farm will be selling their cheese on June 27 from 11am-4pm at their new farm store at 39 Jewell Street, Cornwall. I was lucky enough to taste these delicious cheeses at a recent dinner in the farm’s lovely barn, catered by Bolivar Hilario of soon-to-open RSVP Restaurant, with dessert by Hannah Curran.
Boston:
On a recent trip to Boston, I found a copy of Shere’s Chez Panisse Desserts in the tempting stacks of the 200-year-old Brattle Book Shop.
I also had a lovely outdoor happy hour at Rebel Rebel in Somerville, a perfect banana frozen yogurt for dessert at Sarma, and top-notch pastries and lunch as always at Sofra.
Everywhere:
If you’re not a fan of trillionaire(s), you might relish watching the emotional unravelling exhibited by the characters of The Audactiy, on AMC. Having enjoyed it, I’m not sure why it’s gotten so little attention. Fun disclosure: T, whose favorite almond cake is the one I give you the recipe for below, works for AMC and recommended the show to Ben and me!
Thank you for reading this. I hope you’ll try the recipe that follows! Take care.
Brian
*Formal Assignment P.S. is for paid subscribers. It’s less than $3 a month for an annual subscription. There are reduced annual fees available. Just ask!
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RECIPE: T’S FAVORITE ALMOND CAKE
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This is my adaptation of David Lebovitz’s adaptation of Lindsey Shere’s Chez Panisse Desserts recipe, and I think it’s safe to say that I’ve made this recipe my own: it’s rich with almond flavor, isn’t too sweet, and doesn’t call for store-bought almond paste as the inspiring recipes do. The almond mass simply comes from whole almonds you grind in a food processor (but if you don’t have a food processor, you can use almond flour or even raw almond butter and mix the batter by hand). I like to use raw, natural almonds with their skins on (it makes me feel like I’m making a healthy cake), but you could use blanched (skinless) almonds, which would make for a cake slightly lighter in both color and texture.
You’ll notice that the final stage of mixing is done in a bowl rather than in the food processor. Yes, it annoyingly adds one more dish to clean, but it makes the cake much more tender than when the batter is finished in the food processor (I’ve tried both methods!).
You’ll notice that the recipe below calls for unsalted European(-style) butter, such as Kerrygold. American butter is around 80% milkfat, while European butter is 82%. It may seem a trivial difference, but that much more fat makes European butter remarkably softer, more pliable, and richer.
Makes one 9-inch round cake
Active time: 15 minutes
Total time: 1 1/2 hours (includes baking and cooling)
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INGREDIENTS:
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