Gluten-Free Almond Cake
By America's Test KitchenPublished on May 23, 2019
Time
1½ hours, plus 1¾ cooling
Yield
Serves 8 to 10
Ingredients
Before You Begin
Serve with Orange Crème Fraiche or simply dust with confectioners’ sugar.
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees. Grease and flour 9-inch round cake pan and line bottom with parchment paper. Pulse 11/2 cups almonds, flour blend, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in food processor until almonds are finely ground, 10 to 15 pulses; transfer to bowl.
- Place eggs, 1 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon zest, and almond extract in now-empty food processor and process for 2 minutes. With processor running, add melted butter, followed by oil, in steady stream, until incorporated. Add almond-flour mixture and pulse until fully combined, 4 to 5 pulses.
- Scrape batter into prepared pan, smooth top, and sprinkle with remaining 1/3 cup almonds. Using fingers, combine remaining 2 tablespoons sugar and remaining 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest in bowl until fragrant, then sprinkle over top.
- Bake until center of cake is set and toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, 55 to 65 minutes, rotating pan after 40 minutes. Let cake cool in pan on wire rack for 15 minutes. Run knife around edge of cake to loosen. Remove cake from pan, discard parchment, and let cool completely on rack, about 11/2 hours. Serve. (Cake can be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and stored at room temperature for up to 2 days.)
Time
1½ hours, plus 1¾ coolingYield
Serves 8 to 10Ingredients
Test Kitchen Techniques
Ingredients
Test Kitchen Techniques
Ingredients
Test Kitchen Techniques
Why This Recipe Works
Despite the bold almond flavor and beautiful appearance, most traditional almond cakes are heavy and dense and come across more as a sweet confection than as a cake. Most recipes are made with almond paste and flour, plus sugar and eggs. By switching out the traditional almond paste for ground almonds, we reduced the sweetness quotient and boosted the nut flavor. This swap also made the cake lighter and less candy-like. Traditional recipes don’t contain much flour, so using our gluten-free flour blend worked fairly well, although we found it necessary to use an extra egg to boost the protein content and thus improve the structure of the cake. If blanched sliced almonds cannot be found, use 1 cup of slivered almonds in the cake and 1/3 cup of unblanched sliced almonds for the topping. This cake is very sticky, so be sure to grease and flour the cake pan well.
Before You Begin
Serve with Orange Crème Fraiche or simply dust with confectioners’ sugar.
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees. Grease and flour 9-inch round cake pan and line bottom with parchment paper. Pulse 11/2 cups almonds, flour blend, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in food processor until almonds are finely ground, 10 to 15 pulses; transfer to bowl.
- Place eggs, 1 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon zest, and almond extract in now-empty food processor and process for 2 minutes. With processor running, add melted butter, followed by oil, in steady stream, until incorporated. Add almond-flour mixture and pulse until fully combined, 4 to 5 pulses.
- Scrape batter into prepared pan, smooth top, and sprinkle with remaining 1/3 cup almonds. Using fingers, combine remaining 2 tablespoons sugar and remaining 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest in bowl until fragrant, then sprinkle over top.
- Bake until center of cake is set and toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, 55 to 65 minutes, rotating pan after 40 minutes. Let cake cool in pan on wire rack for 15 minutes. Run knife around edge of cake to loosen. Remove cake from pan, discard parchment, and let cool completely on rack, about 11/2 hours. Serve. (Cake can be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and stored at room temperature for up to 2 days.)
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