Almond Cake with Honey Butter

I’ve been taking a break from the kitchen this week as a part of my “vacation,” but I felt the need to get cookin’ yesterday afternoon.  I had a bottle of almond extract, some really amazing sage honey I bought awhile ago and never used, and a new cook book, Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, owners of Baked… a supposedly killer bakery in Brooklyn.  I was flipping through and found a recipe for almond cupcakes, and also a recipe for honey butter.  Instead of cupcakes, I made a round layer cake, and the texture kind of reminds me of cornbread, only sweet and almondy and perfect for breakfast.

You should go buy this book… I just got it and cannot wait to try all of the recipes. Plus the photos are great, the writing is fabulous, and you should read what Martha Stewart had to say about it.

Almond Cake

very slightly adapted from Baked recipe for Almond Cupcakes with Green Tea Frosting

Hardware:  Nothing special for this recipe, just a mixer and either a cupcake tin or cake pan.

Go Buy This Stuff!

1/2 cup of sliced almonds

2 cups cake flour

1/2 cup regular flour

2 1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

pinch o’ salt

6 Tbsp butter

1/2 cup veggie shortening

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp almond extract

1 whole egg

2 egg whites

1 cup ice water

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Honey Butter:

1 stick of soft butter

2+ Tbsp honey (use a good, local, organic brand!)

Preheat to 325 and grease and flour a cake pan or cupcake tin.  Combine flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.

Beat together the butter and shortening in a mixing bowl until creamy.

Add sugar, vanilla, almond extract, and beat until fluffy. Add in one egg and mix until combined.  Mix in 1/3 of the flour mixture, then 1/2 of the ice water (no ice chunks, please) followed by another 1/3 of flour, the rest of the water, and finally the rest of the flour.

In a separate bowl, whisk the two egg whites and the cream of tartar until soft peaks begin to form.  You’ve gotta use some muscle in this if you aren’t using an electirc mixer, but if my wimpy arms can do it, yours can too.

Now fold the egg whites into the batter.  Chop your almonds up so that they’re extra finely chopped, and fold those into the batter as well.  Fill up your cake pan about 3/4 full and throw it in the oven for about 35 minutes (mine took a bit longer) or about 20 minutes for cupcakes.

Honey butter is super easy to make!  Just take a stick of soft butter and 2 Tbsp (I cheated and used nearly 3 Tbsp) of honey and mix them together until creamy.  Always, always use a all natural, local, organic honey as the quality is far superior, and also try using flavored honey.  I love the Virgin California brand based out of San Martin, CA.  They add many different hints of flavor to their honeys including the Sage Honey that I used for this batch of sweet butter.

Store this in the fridge, in a little container, and spread it on everything!

When your cake is done (a knife poked in the center should come out mostly dry) flip it out of the pan onto a plate.

It will be a bit crumbly, but still moist when you serve it.

Just cut a piece, spread a bunch of honey butter on top, and enjoy!