Apple Almond Cake

When I read about the recipe for the Apple Almond Cake on Dragon's Kitchen, I couldn’t wait to try it. Never before have I had a dessert that combined apples and almonds so this was my chance to make it (and eat it). I have to thank Deeba of Passionate About Baking for posting her version of this cake on her site which I visit frequently otherwise I wouldn’t have found it.

I’ve tweaked Dragon’s recipe a little bit. Instead of yogurt, I used sour cream and I added a little bit of heavy cream. I also prefer to use almond oil instead of almond extract. Because almond oil is much stronger than almond extract, I usually substitute 25% of the extract with oil. With only one medium apple and one small apple sitting on my kitchen counter, I had to cut the recipe in half and bake it in a 6” springform pan. This worked out very well. The cake came out very moist. I would classify its texture as somewhere between a soft fluffy cake and a dense pound cake. The almond-cinnamon-sugar topping was truly the icing on this cake.

Apple Almond Cake

Recipe adapted from Dragon’s Kitchen

Ingredients:

3 Tbsp salted butter, room temperature (don’t add salt to recipe)

3/8 cup sugar

1 egg

1/8 tsp almond oil

¾ cup all-purpose flour

¾ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

¼ cup sour cream

1/8 cup heavy cream

1 medium apple + 1 small apple, peeled, sliced thinly

1/8 cup sliced (unblanched) almonds

1½ Tbsp sugar

½ tsp cinnamon

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour a 6” springform pan.
• Cream butter and sugar until pale colored and fluffy.
• Add the egg and the almond oil. Mix until fully incorporated.
• Sift flour, baking powder and baking soda into a bowl.
• Add the flour mixture in two steps. Add sour cream and heavy cream after adding the first half of the flour mixture.
• Pour batter into prepared pan and arrange the apple slices on top.
• For the topping: combine almonds, sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle the topping over apples.
• Bake for 50-55 minutes or until cake tester inserted in middle of cake comes out clean.

Yields: 8 servings.

Happy Baking!