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.

Cinnamon Rolls

This has been my favorite cinnamon roll recipe for years. I don't make them often because to have them for breakfast, you have to make them the night before and finish them in the morning. Or, eat them at 11am. :)

This particular recipe is for a bread machine. Since I don't have one, I just adapted it for a stand mixer. It's very straightforward, and the results are amazing!!

Clone of a Cinnabon adapted from allrecipes.com

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup warm milk (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

2 1/2 teaspoons yeast

2 eggs, room temperature 1/3 cup butter, melted 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup white sugar

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Filling  1 cup brown sugar, packed

2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

1/3 cup butter, softened

Frosting 1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened 1/4 cup butter, softened 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:

	In the bowl of a stand mixer, sprinkle yeast over warm milk. Let stand 5 minutes. Add eggs, butter, salt and sugar. Mix. Add flour, a cup at a time and knead until the dough is slightly tacky. Turn dough out on a floured surface and knead for a couple of minutes. Place in an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm, dry place until doubled in size.
	After the dough has doubled in size turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, cover and let rest for 10 minutes. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon.
	Roll dough into a 16x21 inch rectangle. Spread dough with 1/3 cup butter and sprinkle evenly with sugar/cinnamon mixture. Roll up dough and cut into 12 rolls. Place rolls in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking pan. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
	Bake rolls in preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes. While rolls are baking, beat together cream cheese, 1/4 cup butter, confectioners' sugar, vanilla extract. Spread frosting on warm rolls before serving.

Soccer Ball Cake

This cake was for my little rascal, who turned 2. His favorite things are balloons and balls. I don't why I decided to make the most difficult ball out of all the balls, but he really loves soccer, so I decided to try it out. I don't have a ball pan, so I carved this, and then used a hexagon pattern I made. After putting all the white pieces on, I traced each spot where the black ones would go so they would fit perfectly.

Oh, and when I asked him what kind of cake he wanted, he said, "Boo (blue)." So this is what we ate- blue vanilla:

Happy birthday to my sweet boy!

Mater Cake

Another Cars 2 cake- this time the birthday boy wanted Mater. Mater is made from Rice Krispy treats. Cake was chocolate/vanilla swirl with strawberry filling.

Knorr Four™ Recipe Contest

BlogHer, the wonderful network of bloggers, is having a recipe contest using the new Knorr Homestyle Stock. The product is a concentrated stock (in my case, chicken), to which you add water for your recipe. Simple!

For my recipe, I made a pulled pork that you can use for taco/burrito fillings, sandwiches, or just with rice. It's a slow-cooker recipe, perfect for a busy summer day!


Sweet Pulled Pork
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 3-6 hours
servings: 8


1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 c light brown sugar
2 t garlic powder
1/4 t ground ginger
1 container Knorr Homestyle chicken stock
1 cup water
2 pound pork loin roast


tortillas, buns, or rice for serving


In a slow cooker, combine first 7 ingredients. Stir well. Add pork roast. Cook on low for 6 hours, or high for 3-4 hours. Shred meat with forks and serve as desired.

Pinkalicious Cake

Ok, maybe I'm the last mom of daughters on earth who hadn't read this book, but someone asked me to make a Pinkalicious cake so I finally read it. Adorable!!
This cake was for a sweet little 6 year old. The mom really liked this cake, so that was the inspiration. The bottom cake was chocolate and the cupcake was vanilla.

Cars 2 Cake

Cars cake for a three year old. Cake was chocolate with oreo filling and peanut butter filling. Lightning and Mater were made from rice krispy treats.