Almond Cake

One of Andy's driving life forces is his quest for the best almond cake. Here's his latest attempt (recipe courtesy of Giada De Laurentiis). It was good: He will eat it all. It was not great: He will not make it again.

1/2 cup fine yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup almond paste, cut into half-inch pieces
1 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar, plus more for dusting
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 eggs
4 egg yolks
1/4 cup sour cream (We had only vanilla yogurt in the house.)

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease an 8" round cake pan with vegetable spray.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the cornmeal, cake flour, and baking powder and set aside.

Using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and almond paste on high speed until smooth, about 5 minutes. Reduce speed to low and slowly add confectioners' sugar. Mix until thoroughly combined and light and fluffy. Raise speed to high and add the vanilla extract, whole eggs, and egg yolks, one at a time. Mix until well combined. Reduce speed to medium and add the sour cream and dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and smooth the surface with a spatula. Bake in the lower third of the oven for 35 minutes, or until the cake is golden and pulls away from the sides of the pan. Transfer pan to a wire rack and let cool. Remove from pan and dust with confectioners' sugar.

Comments

[nina]

Well, ya gotta make it with the sour cream before you completely write it off! Sounds yummy, I love almond, too. If I ever have almond paste in the house I end up eating it right out of the package, sometimes with some good dark choclate. Decadent.

[Karen]

I think yogurt and sour cream perform similarly enough in baking that it wouldn't make a huge difference. We've got a recipe from Chez Panisse that is "on deck" next -- it calls for 3/4 cup almond paste! Can you imagine.

[Mir]

I'm with Nina; although yogurt isn't a bad substitute for sour cream, it's not the same. In my experience, sour cream does something to the texture that can't be replicated with a different ingredient. But that's just my opinion. :)

[Karen]

I'm not saying there would be no difference, I just can't imagine that it would be enough of a difference.

[Judy]

I don't get it - was it thumbs up or down? I've been dying for a good almond cake recipe.

[Karen]

It was good enough to eat but not good enough to keep the recipe. We'll move on to the next contender!

[Andrea]

Look in Amanda Hesser's Cooking for Mr. Latte for the best Almond Cake recipe. Nothing else compares to this one.

[sandy]

Vanilla yogurt is not even close to sour cream, you can't write off a recipe if you don't follow it

[Karen]

I disagree; I think they are very similar, and many recipes call for one or the other. But in any event, the disappointment wasn't about the texture; we were hoping for a more intense almond flavor.

[julie]

There is an orange almond cake recipe in a cookbook by roden (she has a sephardic cookbook), also nigella lawson does a lemon interpretation.

[Renton Auto Repair]

This is a fantastic recipe! I highly recommend making it. I am a moderately experienced baker though I am the first to admit I don't *love* to bake. I followed this recipe to a T (I used my KitchenAid mixer as specified, I hunted down almond paste and I bought cake flour from a specialty store and found that it came out very well. I've already made this recipe twice and always get rave reviews. Highly recommend.