What is a cake with almonds called?

Answer 1

Ground almonds are typically used in sponge cakes instead of wheat-flour, which is particularly helpful to those on gluten-free diets. However, the recipe below (which I've used and it does work) also contains wheat flour, which produces a cake with quite a stable crumb, which is useful should you wish to divide it into many layers. This is a recipe for an Almond Sponge Cake from Larousse Gastronomique (2009 edition). Please don't be put off by the amount of eggs involved - since no chemical leavening is used, whisking huge amounts of air into the eggs is necessary, particularly since using almond meal can result in a dense cake: (12 separated eggs are needed in total for this recipe, since this may not be clear from the text).

"Prepare a sponge mixture using 500g caster (superfine) sugar, 1tbl vanilla sugar (or paste/extract), 12 egg yolks, 175g sifted plain flour and 175g cornflour (cornstarch). To do this, beat the yolks and sugar until thick, pale and forming a "ribbon" trail on the surface of the mixture. Carefully sift both flours and fold into the egg yolk mixture.

In a separate bowl combine 200g ground almonds with 2 egg whites. Add this to the egg yolk mixture. Now, whisk 10 egg whites to stiff peaks and fold into the yolk/flour/almond batter. Pour into a cake tin (batter should fill 2/3 of the tin) and bake at 160 degrees C/ 325 F for 1 to 1 1/4 hours). "

A particular size of tin is not given in the recipe, however I usually use two 9" round cake tins. Also, please be aware that for this recipe, you need to use really large eggs, otherwise when you beat the yolks and sugar to form "ribbons", you'll get a really stiff batter (too much sugar, not enough yolk) which will not become pale and reach the "ribbon" stage if small eggs are used.

This recipe can become slightly dry if overcooked - if you feel this may be a problem, add 20g melted butter after the egg whites are folded in.

Answer 2

Almond cake would be the best name.