Delicious Almond Cake. If you love almond this is the cake for you. Almond studded cake layered with a almond cream cheese frosting and decorated in gold dusted almonds.
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Cleaning out the pantry, that’s about as exciting as it gets here this week folks. I started to really take a look into the pantry to see what was all in there. I was interested in the items that get pushed to the back and never seen again, lol. Each shelf had these hidden items and I wanted to make sure that nothing was going to go bad just sitting there. To the far back of the top shelf was a French Vanilla cake mix. When I make cakes I do so from scratch but my daughter loves to decorate cakes and cupcakes so I keep a few boxes on hand as its a big cost saver and time saver for playing around. I vaguely remember getting this box around Christmas so I wanted to use it up.
I thought it would be fun to play around with the flavor a little to jazz it up a bit (anyone else just see jazz hands? no, yes, maybe?). Using pure almond extract transformed this cake and took it to the next level. The addition of sliced almonds added a delightful crunch to the cake and enhanced the nuttiness as well.
Almond can be a very rich flavor so to give a little balance I whipped up a cream cheese icing and added…you guessed it, a touch of almond extract.
When it comes time to decorate I am always obsessed with sprinkles but for this cake I just wasn’t feeling the sprinkle rainbow I usually love so much. This cake needed something natural…so I took a little gold luster dust added to a baggy with sliced almonds, shook it and out came beautifully golden almonds, perfect to decorate this Delicious Almond Cake.
I used a mauve shade to hue the frosting, Aster Mauve by Wilton to be exact. Its a more subtle natural pink which paired wonderfully with the golden almonds. I did sprinkle a few of the very tiny gold dragees on each of the frosting dollops for some added sparkle as well.
One thing to note when frosting and decorating this cake. The frosting is a soft consistency, I piped dollops on top but it will not hold a shell piping. I started with a crumb coat and then refrigerated the cake for 2 hours before doing my final coat and decorating.
As we enjoy these last few weeks of summer keep this Delicious Almond Cake in mind. It’s a wonderfully sweet, simple and delicious.
Enjoy!
Stacey
FORGOT TO PIN IT? Here’s your chance! Thanks.
Delicious Almond Cake
Ingredients
Method
- Ahead of time preheat oven to 350 degrees F (or cake mix manufacturers preferred temp).
- Prepare 2 - 7 inch cake pans with parchment paper, oil and flour, set aside. *
- CAKE:
- Prepare cake mix batter per the manufacturers instructions.
- Add in almond extract.
- Mix well to combine.
- By hand fold in the slivered almonds.
- Pour into two 7 inch pans and bake 35 minutes or until golden brown and toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Cool completely.
- FROSTING:
- Cream the butter and cream cheese together.
- Slowly add in powdered sugar in batches alternating with milk as needed.
- Add in almond extract, mix well.
- Add in food coloring - eye ball it, start with a little bit on tip of knife and add more if needed and until desired color is achieved.
- Mix well to combine.
- DECORATIONS:
- Place almonds in ziploc bag and add about 1/2 tsp gold luster dust. Close the bag and shake until all almonds are coated. If you find quite a few almonds not coated add a bit more gold dust and shake again.
- ASSEMBLY:
- Cut each cake in half to make a total of four layers.
- Lay one cake layer on cake plate, spread frosting evenly over layer.
- Add next cake layer on top and frost. Repeat with remaining layers.
- Apply a crumb coat of frosting over entire cake and refrigerate 2 hours.
- Apply final frosting coat.
- Apply dollops on top outer edge.
- Fill top center with golden almonds.
- Sprinkle gold dragged over frosting dollops on top.
- Gently press golden almonds onto bottom 1/4 of cake.
Notes
** The frosting is a soft consistency, I piped dollops on top but it will not hold a shell piping. I started with a crumb coat and then refrigerated the cake for 2 hours before doing my final coat and decorating.
This is so beautiful I can’t even handle it! My birthday is just around the corner…I may need to send this recipe and photos along to my family! 😉 That’s a great idea to keep boxed mixes around for your little one to learn with… Thanks for the reminder to pin but I would not have forgotten! Gorgeous! Have a great week, my friend!
Hi Annie! Thanks, I am so glad you liked the cake. Lol, thanks for the pin! I little reminder never hurts. Take care.
I happen to loooove almond, so I am giving you ALL the jazz hands for this one, Stacey! Those gold dusted almonds are everything! And the mauve colored frosting is PERFECT! This is one show stopping cake, girlfriend! Pinned! Cheers!
P.S. Ohhh boy, cleaning out the pantry is something I always DREAD doing… I always find cans or bags of things I completely forgot about! Oops! 😉
Thanks Cheyanne, I am so glad you loved the cake! That pantry always gets so over stuffed and of course I find duplicates of things I thought I was out of, lol. Take care.
This is one of my favorite postings!!! What beautiful cake!! It just makes me want to have a party and eat that cake!! Great pictures!! You sure have a gift for decorating a simple cake. You elevated that cake to GORGEOUS!! Those gold almonds take the CAKE no pun intended. I know your daughter is one lucky little girl.
Thanks Carolyn! Glad you liked the cake and the gold almonds, I thought they were really pretty to. Take care.
I love cakes that look like you could swipe your finger through the frosting for a taste and this is one of those cakes. Pretty in pink to.
Hi Jane. Same here and I may have swiped my finger in the frosting a few times, lol. Take care.