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Tender Almond Cake
![Tender Almond Cake](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2023/02/01/multimedia/25tanisrex3-cake-jtpw/25tanisrex3-cake-jtpw-articleLarge.jpg?width=1280&quality=75&auto=webp)
- Total Time
- 1 hour, plus cooling
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 1tablespoon unsalted butter, softened, for greasing the pan
- 8ounces/227 grams blanched almonds
- 6large eggs, separated
- 1¼cups/250 grams granulated sugar
- 1orange, zested
- 1lemon, zested
- ¼teaspoon almond extract
- Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting
Preparation
- Step 1
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan with parchment paper and grease the sides with butter.
- Step 2
Pulse almonds a few times in a food processor, then grind them, until they become a coarse meal, about 30 seconds to 1 minute.
- Step 3
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat egg yolks and sugar on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 1 minute. (Alternatively, use a large bowl and a hand mixer.) Beat in ground almonds, zests and almond extract until incorporated. Transfer mixture to another bowl and thoroughly wipe out stand mixer bowl or clean out the large bowl. (You don’t want any egg yolk present, as they can inhibit the whipping of the egg whites.)
- Step 4
In the clean bowl, beat egg whites to stiff peaks on medium-high speed, 1 to 2 minutes. Incorporate the whites into the egg-sugar-almond mixture until no white streaks remain, then spread into the prepared pan.
- Step 5
Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 30 to 40 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean, indicating the cake is cooked.
- Step 6
Cool in the pan on a rack. Run a knife around the edge of the cake to loosen, and transfer to a serving platter. Dust with confectioners’ sugar before serving.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
Could you use almond meal rather than grinding the blanched almonds?
A little historical note: This cake from Galicia is actually called the "tarta" de Santiago and not torta is we say here in Italia. It derives it's name from the imprint of the cross of St. James on the top of the tarta that is made by using a stencil of the cross and dusting with powdered sugar. The original recipe that I have is from a bakery in Portomarìn and uses 200 grams of almond flour which in the States can be almond meal.
I would beat the egg whites first. Then beat the yolks, almonds, butter, etc. bowl and beater must be clean for egg whites but not so much for the rest
If one used almond flour, what would be the measurement, not the weight?
I made this cake today using 227 grams of blanched almond flour. Came out perfectly delicious. As was suggested earlier here, I sliced the cake horizontally, spread about cup and half of apricot jam on the lower cake, put the cake back together again and sprinkled with confectioners’ sugar. Served it with a dollop of one cup heavy cream whipped with one tablespoon of Amaretto liqueur.
Almond flour is not a good substitute, unfortunately. It is very dry compared to ground almonds, with most of the oils removed. You will get a very different result using almond flour.
grinding the almonds in the food processor as opposed to using almond meal or flour, gives the cake a wonderful texture. Next time I'll add even more orange zest. This is a keeper; easy, fast, and truly divine!
My uncle google says the weight of 227g almonds is equivalent to 2.75 cups
I whisk the egg whites in the stand mixer bowl first and put into a second bowl. Then beat the sugar and egg yolks, add almonds etc in the stand mixer bowl. It only takes a few minutes so egg whites stay stiff until you need them
Quick and simple. This cake is perfect for tea, company, or in your lunch sack! I might split and fill with apricot jam and fresh whipped cream if I was making it for an event, but just to be extra extra(-; Make this. You won’t regret having this recipe in your back pocket!
Good cake, flavourful, nice and moist. I had almond flour that needed to be used, so I weigh my flour to 227 gr, this gave me more like 11/2 cup which was more than 1 cup that the recipe called for. So since I had the 227 gr I decided to use it all. I read that using almond flour would result in a drier cake, which would make sense so I added 1 tablespoon of melted butter. The result was a very flavourful excellent cake that I served with a berry fruit compote and whipped cream it was delicious.
I had an open 16 oz bag of blanched almond meal claiming 16 1/4c (28g) servings - 8 oz was 2 cups. Subbed clementine zest, lemon + vanilla extracts on hand. Came out great!
Easy cake to make but I think I would use less sugar next time. A little too sweet.
I’d grind the almonds into a finer meal next time. Mine was about Panko sized. The cake is crunchy.
The dough before egg whites is sticky and dense but if you add couple spoonfuls of whipped egg whites to the mixture first it will loosen it up and then it’s easier to add the rest more gently.
one cup almond flour
I made this for our Village Hall Coffee morning and it received rave reviews. So much so that I'll have to make another to get to taste it! You made some people in Devon (South West UK ) very happy so thanks. I used ground almonds as that's what I had on hand.
Beat the whites first. You will know you have beaten the yolks and sugar enough when you can't feel sugar granules if you take a bit between your fingers. Fold (not "combine") the whites and the yolks/sugar/almond mixture together to keep as much air in the batter as possible. It's a great recipe and was a perfect summer dessert. We served it with fresh berries. Whipped cream might go well with it, too.
I’ve made this cake several times and although it always collapses in the middle, it’s now the hands-down family favorite for Passover dessert! We serve it with homemade apricot jam (made from rehydrated dried apricots) and it’s delicious.
Has anyone made this ahead and frozen? Wanting to make about 4 days ahead to cut down on prep/plan for warm weather.
Followed the recipe to the letter first time and it didn't rise more than 1 inch. Planned to split and layer with apricot jam so put it on top instead. Decided it looked pitiful so made another layer. This time put eggs in together with sugar, used almond flour and it came out much better. Plopped that on on top of the other and dusted with confectioners sugar. I huge hit--something you just keep slicing off with your wine after dinner! A keeper!
This cake is absurdly delicious, even if you play fast and loose with the directions. I used Trader Joe’s almond flour and accidentally added it to the egg yolks at the same time as the sugar. It turned into a thick paste that was very difficult to combine with the beaten egg whites. And you know what? It didn’t matter at all. The cake was terrific. I served it with a blow of raspberry jam and whipped cream. Will be a go-to Passover dessert from now on.
I followed the recipe pretty exactly (though there's some subjectivity to how fine the almonds get ground). But I did end up baking it over an hour. At 35 minutes, the cake was very obviously still liquid in the middle. Fantastic moistness (how could it not be) and wonderful flavor!
also great for Passover
I wonder how this would taste if I hadn't inadvertently mixed a small amount of yolk in with the whites. I had a decision to make: I chose to beat the yolk and whites (whole egg) together. I reduced sugar by half. The result was still too sweet for me, but had a lovely crumb an was deliciously moist. I would increase zest of both lemon and orange, however. This was the quickest cake preparation, ever. Thank you NYT Cooking!
I made this for my friends, and we all loved it. I read the notes beforehand and lowered the sugar to 200 grams. It was sweet enough even for my friend with a real sweet tooth. I used a little bit of the sugar for grinding the almonds, and got them pretty fine. It was done in 40 minutes. I served it with whipped cream and raspberries. Perfect. It’s so nice to have a good cake recipe that doesn’t have lots of butter (although I love butter)
First attempt: baked for 30 min, at which point a toothpick looked clean. But it was undercooked in the center. Next time, try closer to 40 min.
made this and took it to a potluck dinner and people raved about it, and ate the whole thing!
Bake 45 min
This truly was a delightful cake. I’ve made a few other almond cakes before and this was noticeably better in flavor and texture. I added some dried orange peel along with the fresh zest. Definitely follow the instruction about grinding your own almonds rather than using almond flour.
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