OT: Great (glutton-free) cake for those who hate to bake

[OrmontUS]

If it weren’t for its name (and the fact it is usually prepared with a stenciled crucifix of confectioner’s sugar on top) it would be a great Passover cake as well. This is an easy, yet delicious cake:

Jeff

Spanish Almond Cake (Tarta De Santiago)

240 grams (1 cup plus 2 tablespoons) white (or unbleached) sugar
3 large eggs, plus 3 large egg whites
¼ teaspoon table salt
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
250 grams (2½ cups) blanched almond flour (I ground whole almonds in a food processor for this)
35 grams (3 tablespoons) turbinado, demerara (or unbleached) sugar
37 grams (⅓ cup) sliced almonds, chopped

DIRECTIONS

Heat the oven to 350°F with a rack in the middle position. Mist the bottom and sides of a 9-inch round cake pan (preferably a spring-form) with cooking spray, line the bottom with a round of kitchen parchment, and the side with a strip of parchment paper, then mist the parchment.

In a large bowl, combine the white sugar, whole eggs and egg whites, salt and both extracts. Whisk vigorously until well combined, 30 to 45 seconds; the mixture will be slightly frothy and the sugar will not be fully dissolved. Add the almond flour and whisk until incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, then sprinkle evenly with the turbinado sugar and chopped almonds. Bake until deeply browned and the crust feels firm when gently pressed with a finger, 45 to 55 minutes. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes.

Run a knife around the edges of the cake, then invert onto a plate. Remove the pan and parchment then re-invert the cake onto a serving plate. Let cool completely before serving.

Tip: Don’t underbake the cake. Rather than use a skewer or toothpick to test the center for doneness, check the browning and crust development. The cake is ready when the surface is deeply browned and the crust feels firm when gently pressed

[inparadise]

Interesting. I bet this could be made low carb easily with substituting erythritol for sugar.

I bake quite a bit with almond flour. It tends to make a much more fragile cake than that made with wheat flour. At a minimum, cool cake completely before removing from pan. I use silicone bakeware for this because it is much easier to pop the cooled cake out of it than a metal pan and does not require parchment paper. Additionally you can add some extra protein, like whey powder, to firm up the finished cake, though perhaps the copious amount of eggs in this recipe takes care of the extra protein need.

Almond flour can reasonably and easily be bought at Costco, Trader Joes, and no doubt Whole Foods, not to mention most grocery stores. No need to grind your own and you will find the texture of the store bought flour made cake to be much more like wheat flour.

IP