one more from the archives / golden almond cake

Okay, one more cake I've already done before commencing with the project proper.  This two tier cake was done for a Thanksgiving party and made a day in advance.  It's the golden almond cake (page 37), with raspberry neoclassic buttercream (page 230) done by adding raspberry sauce (page 337) to the plain buttercream recipe.

I *LOVE* almond, and this cake is an almond powerhouse, which is why it's a 10 for me (in addition to being seriously the easiest cake ever to bake).  The great flavoring comes from a combination of substituting some finely ground almonds for a portion of the flour, and almond extract.  The texture is moist and light, and it tastes great on its own or frosted.  Because I wanted to make this a presentation cake, I baked two batches of batter.  Each recipe will easily make a 6" and a 9" round of about 1"-1.5" thickness.

To dirty ice and fill the cakes, I chose raspberry buttercream, as suggested in the book, since raspberry complements almond well.  The neoclassic buttercream always tastes too buttery and not sweet enough to me when it's made as instructed, so I generally will add powdered sugar to taste.  The raspberry sauce calls for unsweetened frozen raspberries, since the sugar in the sweetened variety will make it more difficult to reduce the liquid (because the sugar caramelizes). Unfortunately, I couldn't find unsweetened frozen raspberries in a pinch, so I used the sweetened kind anyway.  The strained liquid was more difficult to reduce, but it still works.  I was happy with the amount of raspberry flavoring generated from the one bag of raspberries, and the buttercream had an appealing pink color.  I also added some fresh halved raspberries to the filling for added fruit flavor.

 

Once dirty iced, both tiers were covered with marshmallow fondant and stacked.  The cake was embellished with chocolate pinecones and white chocolate fossil leaves.
 

Ratings:

Overall - 10

Crumb - 9 / super moist and light, keeps well

Flavor - 10 / if you like almond, you will love this cake

Appearance - 8 / a great light color, it bakes evenly and browns well

Ease of baking - 9 / besides grinding up the almonds, this cake can't get easier    

 

Details:

Bakeware - 6" round (x2), 9" round (x2)

Oven temperature - 350 degrees

Notes - spongy, easy to level, not too crumbly.  Keeps well.