Olla-Podrida: white almond cake

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 mom’s 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.

This year I thought that I would make my own cake. I bought ingredients for German chocolate, but then decided that I was going to try my hand at a bakery-style white cake. This is a popular recipe for a dense and delicious wedding-style white cake that is easy to make. I altered it a bit because I wanted my cake to be pure white, so instead of using pure vanilla extract, that can turn both cake and icing dark, I used clear vanilla flavoring. I was quite pleased with the outcome. Friends and family both were appalled that I'd made my own birthday cake, but I was really happy to do it. Thank goodness I put half in the freezer because I cannot be trusted with a delicious cake and a fork!

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.