Almond Cake with Homemade Almond Paste

My husband's birthday was last month and for a cake, he wanted an almond cake. I've always wanted to make a traditional almond cake using almond paste. I looked for a recipe for almond paste and found that it's relatively easy to make. There were cautions, however, that a food processor would not be able to ground almonds as finely as found in store-bought almond paste. I decided to go for it anyway.

I used this easy recipe from Taste of Home. You ground almonds in a food processor until very fine- mine took about 3-4 minutes. Be careful not to process too much or it will turn to mush. Then you add powdered sugar, an egg white, and almond extract.

Once the almond paste is made, you're ready to make almond cake. I used David Lebovitz's recipe for a traditional almond cake. The recipe is straight forward and comes together fairly quickly. The recipe recommends making the batter in a food processor, but mine wasn't big enough so I used a stand mixer.

The cake bakes in a 9" spring form, and is dusted with powdered sugar.

I served this with my husband's favorite chocolate almond ice cream (he likes almond flavor, in case you didn't catch it). The cake is dense and moist, but didn't have the almond flavor I was expecting. It tasted quite eggy, and more like a breakfast dish than dessert. The almond paste was yummy, though, and I used the rest of it to make Abby Dodge's Chewy Almond cookies- recipe to come!

Homemade Almond Paste

from Taste of Home

Ingredients

• 1-1/2 cups blanched almonds
• 1-1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 egg white
• 1-1/2 teaspoons almond extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• Place almonds in a food processor; cover and process until smooth.
• Add the confectioners' sugar, egg white, extract and salt; cover and
• process until smooth.
• Divide almond paste into 1/2-cup portions; place in airtight
• containers. Refrigerate for up to 1 month or freeze for up to 3
• months. Yield: 1-1/2 cups.