White Chocolate Almond Cake

White Chocolate Almond Cake

I was given one of Nigella Lawson's cookbooks, called Nigella Fresh: Delicious Flavors on Your Plate All Year Round, by my mom last Christmas, and hadn't used it yet. I felt guilty for having this book around and not even touching it for months, so I decided it was time to check it out. I immediately flipped to an almond cake recipe, and decided I would make it that night. Almond cake is my mom's favorite dessert, so it was only fitting that the recipe came from a cookbook that she gave me. We didn't have almond cake often when I was growing up, but when we did, it was always a special treat. There are only two different stores I have ever bought it from, and those are Taylor's Market in Sacramento, and my favorite grocery store in NYC, called Gourmet Garage. I don't think I would trust almond cake from a general grocery store, like Safeway. Maybe that is pretentious, but a decadent and dense cake such as almond cake deserves to be well made. 

I noticed that Nigella's book offers a lot of flexibility in the recipes and ingredients that are called upon. Completely opposite of the book I am reading, The Improvisational Cook, Nigella's book talks about ingredients that may already be in your cupboard.  The items aren't necessarily completely fresh from the Farmer's Market you found that morning. In my case, though, of course I had to get fresh raspberries and better, more expensive white chocolate morsels than what I had in my baking cupboard. I decided to go with Ghiradelli's white chocolate morsels...after all, I am in San Francisco.

In America, a cake made with ground nuts instead of flour, is often called a torte. This cake is beautiful in the summer time,  because even though the texture is dense, it feels rather light. The white chocolate is hinted in the flavor, but the almond taste really stays true to the cake's name.

Keep in mind, if you don't have an electric mixer, or hand mixer, this recipe will be a lot of work. It is one of the more advanced recipes I have done, so if you aren't comfortable with baking at all, I don't suggest trying this until you get yourself a hand mixer at least. There are some differences between Nigella's recipe and mine, simply because I didn't have a spring-form pan, and I served it with raspberries instead of mangoes. Most of the time, if you don't have a cooking utensil that a recipe is calling for, there is usually something simple you have in your kitchen that you can use as a replacement. Spring-form pans make it easier to keep the cake's shape, but honestly I didn't really care what it looked like. It wasn't perfect, but I also wasn't submitting it to a baking competition either.

Ingredients:

6 ounces white chocolate morsels 

10 tablespoons soft, unsalted butter

6 tablespoons granulated sugar

6 large eggs, separated (the yolk and the egg whites)

1 1/2 cup ground almonds (I used sliced, and already  de-skinned almonds- and used my coffee grinder to grind them)

Drop almond extract (which I omitted, because I couldn't find any at Whole Foods)

To serve: 

Case of fresh raspberries (4-5 ounces)

3 tablespoons powdered sugar

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and line a 9 inch pan; if you have almond oil on hand, use that, otherwise butter is fine

2. Add the chocolate to a small bowl, and melt on medium heat for a couple 1-2 minutes, watching it so that it doesn't lose its shape. Don't expect white chocolate to ever melt quite like dark chocolate; once it's lost its shape. it is melted enough- any more and it will start to seize. Put to one side while you get on with the cake

3. Beat the butter until very soft, then add half of the sugar, and beat again. Still beating, add the egg yolks one at a time, waiting until each one is incorporated before adding the next, then slowly scrape in the cooled, melted chocolate, beating firmly as you do so.

 4. Once the chocolate is smoothly incorporated, add the ground almonds and the almond extract, beating again to mix.

  

5. Whisk the egg whites until peaks begin to form, then slowly add the remaining sugar until gleaming and glossy (if you are thinking to yourself, what that even means, it means just whisk until it starts getting frothy...which can take a few minutes)

6. Add a big dollop to the cake batter and stir well to lighten the mixture, then fold in the rest, gently in three to four parts. Click on that hyperlink if you are unsure of what folding is

 

7. Pour into the prepared pan, and bake for 40-45 minutes or until cooked through. You shouldn't expect a plunged-in cake tester (a knife in my case) to come out exactly clean-this is, after all a dense, damp sort of cake- but no uncooked batter should be clinging to it. You should, though, check the cake after about 30 minutes because at this point, you may need to cover the cake loosely with foil to stop it from burning if it is looking rather dark. Don't worry if there is some bronzing on top 

8. Once cake is out, let rest until completely cooled, and then slice accordingly.

 

9. Sprinkle with 1/2 tablespoon of powdered sugar, and garnish with as many raspberries as your heart desires

Here is a list of kitchen items you can use as makeshift equipment (found in Sally Schneider's The Improvisational Cook)

Citrus juicer: A dinner fork. Halve a lemon or lime and hold over a bowl; press the tines of the forl into a half and rotate the fruit to ream it
Cookie/biscuit cutter: A clean glass with a thin lip or an empty, clean can (with label removed)
Double boiler: Fit a medium saucepan with a bowl just large enough to be suspended over, not in, water in the pan. Cover with a lid
Flame Tamer: Use an iron skillet set on a burner. Place the saucepan inside it
Meat pounder: A flat rock, the side of a cleaver, or a flat-bottomed iron skillet
Mortar: Stainless steel bowl.
Pestle: Smooth heavy stone, doorknob, heavy jar, or can