Friday, October 5, 2018

White Almond Cake with Creamy White Almond Frosting

As I've mentioned numerous times on this blog, my favorite dessert is cookies. But this wasn’t always the case; growing up I far preferred cake. Two kinds were among my favorites: devil’s food with white icing from a bakery, or my moms homemade German chocolate. I never told her this, but I think I tended to prefer the bakery cake (that frosting!). There was something about digging into one of those sugar-beribboned, icing-flowered layer or sheet cakes that I really enjoyed. As I got older my favorite bakery cake changed from devil’s food with white icing to white cake with white icing, perhaps because of the many weddings I came to attend. 
When I was in college I met a girl of like mind, who instantly became my best friend. Back then, we were thin and pretty, and able to burn thousands of calories easily. On Saturday nights (in the days when stores were closed on Sundays), we would head to Target, back when Target had a bakery (a.k.a the good old days), just before closing, to see what cakes they had left over, and buy one for half price. Then we'd spend the weekend eating it. We didn’t bother with plates, we each had our own fork, she would start at one end, I would start at the other, and we would dig in. We never gained an ounce. As you can imagine, we ended up with some rather interesting cakes. There were cakes with birthday wishes, wedding wishes, retirement wishes, anniversary wishes, and this one (I’m the grinning idiot on the right) wishing Irving a Happy Bar Mitzvah.
My birthday is Sunday. It had become pretty much a tradition for my mother to bake me a German chocolate cake every year. When my mother passed away, my younger son, Andrew, would buy me a German chocolate cake from a local French pastry shop, because he didn’t want that tradition to die.
White Almond Cake
Adapted from Allrecipes

1 18.25-oz. pkg. white cake mix
1 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. sugar
3/4 t. salt
1-1/3 c. water
1 c. sour cream
2 T. vegetable oil
1 t.
pure almond extract
  1 t. clear vanilla flavoring
4 egg whites

Preheat oven to 325° F. Grease and flour 2 8-inch round cake pans.

Stir together white cake mix, flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl until well mixed. Poor in water, sour cream, vegetable oil, almond extract, and vanilla flavoring. Beat to combine. Add egg whites, and beat with an electric mixer on low until all ingredients are mixed, about four minutes.


Pour the batter into prepared pans and bake until the top is light golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 45 to 55 minutes. Allow to cool in pan 10 minutes before turning out onto rack to cool completely.

Almond Butter Cream Frosting

3 cups confectioners sugar
1/3 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon
clear vanilla flavoring
1/2 teaspoon
pure almond extract
  1 to 2 tablespoons whole milk

Beat together sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl until creamy. Add remaining ingredients and beat at high-speed for five minutes, until light and fluffy, add more milk to thin, if necessary. I made this one and a half times in order to frost the cake, and for the decorations on top.

Store frosted cake in the refrigerator in order to keep the frosting firm. It was a warm day with high humidity when I made this, so that’s what I chose to do. If you live in a cooler, drier part of the country, you may leave the cake out on the counter.

If chocolate is more your thing, this Chocolate Malt Cake with Chocolate Malt Frosting is mighty impressive.



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16 comments:

Thelma said...

Happy Birthday. Your cake looks beautiful and I bet it is so delicious. My favorite cake used to be German Chocolate from Woolworth. My sister worked in the pastry there in the 60's/70s. and she brought left over cakes home often. I must make it sometime. Have a good weekend and enjoy your cake. Have a piece for me. xo

Rustown Mom said...

Happy Birthday to you!! This is an impressive looking and beautiful cake - I'm thinking for my youngest's birthday on Christmas Day! Printing it right now - thanks!

gluten Free A_Z Blog said...

oh that cake looks incredible- Happy Birthday and enjoy your birthday cake!!

Linda said...

Happy Birthday Pattie! Your cake looks delicious. I hope you enjoy many slices of it!
When Mom was still able to bake, she always made my favorite yellow cake with chocolate frosting. Now I like to make my own, and I get is the same horrified reaction you get. But I prefer my baking, hah!
I did a double-take when I saw your first photo. I spent yesterday afternoon baking Magnolia Bakery's vanilla birthday cake for my daughter's BD (she's visiting this weekend) and iced it with a vanilla bean frosting and now have a similar looking cake in the fridge!

bj said...

What a beautiful cake and your photos of it are amazing.
German Cho. was Mr. Sweet's favorite and my mom could make the best. She made him one for birthdays. My brother liked cho cake with white icing and I like vanilla cake with real fudge icing.

Patti @ Pandoras Box said...

Hope you enjoyed your b-day - this cake made me drool - it looks delish!!

Gardening Helen said...

Beautiful cake - and it sounds so delicious! Thanks for sharing at the What's for Dinner party! Have a lovely week and hope to see you next week too!

Alycia Nichols said...

I never knew until about 5 years ago that it was almond extract that made wedding cakes taste the way they do. Ever since, almond extract goes straight into every white cake I make. What an extraordinary flavor!!! When I eat it, I fancy myself at a wedding...in sweats or pajamas or whatever I’m likely wearing at the time!!!🤣 Hooray for you baking your own cake!!! It’s like a little gift to you FROM you! I threw myself a birthday party this year. No shame in going for what we want to celebrate our special day!!! I do miss those days of eating anything and everything in sight without gaining an ounce.😒 We didn’t know just how good we had it then. Your little picture is cute as a button! You look like one of those girls in a Pepsi commercial, all carefree and happy!!!

Sandra Lee said...

I hope you had a great birthday and this cake looks delicious. Thanks for sharing it at Celebrate Your Story.

Miz Helen said...

Happy Birthday Patti,
Wow, that cake looks amazing, we love a great white cake and that frosting is fantastic! Thanks so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday and have a great week!
Miz Helen

Rita C at Panoply said...

Oh my goodness that looks and sounds delish! Happy, Happy Birthday!

Gayle said...

All of a sudden I have stopped receiving your blogs. I really enjoy the posts and wonder what could have happened.

Pattie @ Olla-Podrida said...

I’m sorry about that Gayle, because I am still blogging up a storm.

Kari Rogers Miller said...

Patti, I chose your cake as my feature of the week at Celebrate Your Story #150 and I can't wait to try it. I actually put three of your pictures on my site.

I have baked my own birthday cake many times and sometimes prefer it because I get what I want. Thank you for sharing on our link party.

Kari@meandmycaptain

Cake Square Chennai Online said...

This buttercream will keep at room temperature for 2-3 days. If you are planning to keep it any longer than that, store it in the fridge or freezer. For delicious variations add cocoa powder, peanut butter, fruit purees or different flavored extracts.
Cake shops in Chennai

Unknown said...

This is one of the best and easiest cakes I have ever made. It's not often that I crave the CAKE part of the cake as much as the frosting. I made this for my 50th birthday - we were snowed in so thankfully I had just the right amount of sour cream and a white cake mix. It was sublime. Thank you!