Almond Cake

This cake is really a bomb. Of calories and tastiness. I've been bringing the recipe along ever since I started working in a coffee-shop in Berkeley, which I'd already told you about, here. Over the years, I've changed it a little bit to better suite my taste, reducing both the amount of sugar and that of almond paste.

Yesterday I decided to make it again and pair it with pomegranate syrup, to ease the almonds’ sweetness with the fruit's tangy taste. To tell you the truth, everything started off with the syrup, or rather, even further back, with a bottle of pure pomegranate juice that wanted to slip at all costs in the cart while I was grocery shopping. At home, it begged me not to waste it for an ordinary glass of juice and to give it a second chance instead. Fair enough. I gave in and turned it in syrup, thinking that that was it. Instead even this one started whining and to make it shut up I had to put something next to it, for it to slide down. This is how I eventually got to the cake.
Now tell me, does this happen to you as well?


Almond Cake
for a 9" diameter round pan

almond paste 1 200 gr-package
sugar 200 gr
butter, room temperature 250 gr
eggs, room temperature 6
flour 150 gr
vanilla extract 1 teaspoon
salt one pinch
baking powder 1 and 1/2 teaspoon
sugar, water, slivered almond and powdered sugar to finish to taste

Work sugar with almond paste, and break this apart very well (I recommend using the Kitchen Aid rather then the electric mixer for this). Add softened butter and vanilla extract and mix well until the batter is smooth and creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, stirring well before adding the next one. Add flour, sifted with baking powder and salt. Mix well, then pour the batter in the pan, properly buttered and floured, and bake at 320 for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Let cool on a rack. Meanwhile toast the slivered almond in the oven and make a light syrup dissolving two tablespoons of sugar in a pan with some water.
Brush the syrup on top of the cake, sprinkle with almonds and dust with powdered sugar (you can also skip the almond covering and simply dust the cake with powdered sugar). Serve with pomegranate syrup or another sauce of your choice.
I'll post the syrup next time : )