Light, moist and velvety, this Almond Cream Cake has a homemade cooked, whipped frosting that pairs perfectly with the almond cake. Decorate the cake simply with sliced almonds.
Almond Cream Cake Recipe
If you’re looking at this cake and happen to remember the pinkalicious cake we recently posted, you’ll think that we’re in an almond kind of mood. It’s true. We do love our almonds. What is sad is that this Almond Cream Cake has been sitting in my “to-do” pile for 3 months. Anyone else have a to-do list like this?
It’s not that I wasn’t excited about sharing it with you, or that it didn’t taste as good as the other treats we’ve been sharing. Quite the opposite, actually. I wanted to give this cake the credit that it was due, and with the busyness of the holidays, I kept pushing it aside until I had more time.
Well, your wait is over, my friends. Let me tell you about this cake.
Homemade White Cake
First of all, it’s a completely homemade white cake. That means from scratch. No boxed mix. I love boxed cake mixes because they turn out perfectly nearly every time. But making a cake from scratch has always been this challenge that I’ve wanted to tackle.
In finding a delicious recipe for white cake (which happens to be my favorite flavor), we had several failures. I wanted a moist cake, but I wanted it to have a light crumb and be thick, but not heavy. We tossed aside several different attempts, but when I saw how this cake baked up? I knew this was it. For a homemade cake, this one beat the rest. It’s velvety and moist. Can you see the texture in this photo?
Cake Flour or All-Purpose Flour
The recipe uses cake flour instead of all-purpose flour. All purpose flour has more protein in it (10-12 grams in all-purpose as opposed to 8 grams in cake flour), which forms gluten when you mix it. This causes the cake to be more “holey”. The less gluten there is, the more tender the cake is. The starch in the cake flour helps to stabilize the cake. There’s more science behind the reasons you should use cake flour when baking a cake. Although I like learning the science behind baking and sharing it with you, sometimes it is just easier to let the experts explain it. You can read more of the science behind cake flour here.
Whipped Frosting
The second special part of this cake is the frosting. Although we love our buttercream recipe, I was wanting to try something a little different for this cake. I’ve always loved whipped frosting because it is less sweet than many store-bought buttercreams. I searched for a delicious whipped frosting and came across this recipe that got rave reviews. It’s a cooked frosting…something I had never tried before! This frosting takes a bit of time to make, but one spoonful and you may just be hooked.
How to Make Cooked Flour Frosting
When you make the frosting, it is important to follow the directions carefully. You’ll want to cook the milk and flour together over medium heat until the mixture is very thick and resembles mashed potatoes. Don’t undercook this! It took about 10 minutes for me to get my mixture to this texture. Stir constantly while it is cooking so it doesn’t burn on the saucepan.
At this point you’ll probably be questioning how in the world this is going to taste good on your precious cake. Trust me. It will.
Let the flour and milk mixture cool to room temperature and add the almond extract. You can speed up the process by placing the pan on ice if you’d like. It cools within minutes if you use this trick. Also, stir the frosting a few times while it is cooling. This will prevent a film from developing over your frosting. Stirring it and even placing plastic wrap right on top of the frosting will help to keep your frosting smooth.
While this is cooling, take the granulated sugar and put it through your food processor to make the grains of sugar finer. Why do this? In the next step, you’ll cream the butter and sugar together until there is no graininess left. It will take less time if you process the sugar first. Or you can use a superfine sugar such as this one.
Once the butter and sugar are completely creamed together (beating about 5 minutes), add the cooled flour mixture and you are going to beat the mixture with the wire whisk attachment for a good 5 minutes. The mixture will go from having a separated look to coming together into a beautiful whipped cream. Just when you think it isn’t going to work it will start getting fluffy and look like a delicious whipped frosting. Go ahead. Sneak a little taste. Just be warned that you may not be able to stop eating it.
We wanted a nice, thick layer of frosting on our almond cream cake. If you’d just like a thin layer of frosting you can halve the frosting recipe.
Decorate a Cake with Almonds
You can leave the almond cream cake a pure, snowy white if you’d like, or press some sliced almonds onto the sides. Arrange a few whole almonds on the top . Make it your own and be proud of it!
I’d say our first try at making cooked frosting was a success. What about you? Have you ever tried homemade whipped frosting or from-scratch cakes? I’d love it if you shared any other hints for homemade cakes or whipped frosting with us!
Tools for Making This Cake
- Stand Mixer: A hand mixer will work, but I always find it easier to make frostings with a stand mixer.
- Cake Flour:A must-have for anyone who loves to bake from scratch.
- Beater Blade with Scraper: The best invention ever!
- Ninja Express Chop: Mini food processor…this is one of my most-used kitchen tools!
- Straight Icing Spatula: The long straight spatula makes it easy to smooth frosting.
- Wire Cooling Racks: This will help your cakes cool more quickly.
Almond Cream Cake
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter softened
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 3 cups cake flour* (345 grams) spooned & measured carefully
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 cup milk 2% milkfat
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 3/4 cup egg whites plus 3 tablespoons*
Frosting:
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons white flour
- 2 cups milk
- 1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
- 2 cups butter softened
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- Sliced almonds and whole almonds for decorating
Instructions
- Using a stand mixer, beat the egg whites with the whisk attachment until they are stiff and form peaks. This may take a minute or two. Pour the egg whites into another bowl and place them in the refrigerator until you're ready to add them to the batter.
- Using the same bowl that you used to beat the egg whites, place the softened butter in and cream the butter for about 2 minutes (using the beater blade attachmenuntil it is white in appearance.
- Add the sugar to the butter and beat until fluffy (about another 1-2 minutes).
- In a small bowl, combine the flour (measured carefully*), salt and baking powder. Set aside.
- In another bowl, combine the milk and almond extract.
- Add the flour mixture to the butter/sugar mixture alternately with the milk.
- Add the stiffly beaten eggs to the cake batter. Fold the egg whites in gently. Do not overmix at this point. If you do, your cake will become more dense.
- Grease and flour 2 9" round cake pans. Pour the cake batter equally into the prepared cake pans.
- Bake the cakes at 350 degrees for 25-27 minutes or until the top bounces back when you touch it.
- Allow the cakes to cool for 10 minutes, then loosen the edges and remove them from the pans to a wire rack, allowing them to cool completely.
- While the cakes are cooling, prepare the frosting. In a saucepan, whisk the flour into the milk over medium-low heat until it thickens. Stir it constantly, lowering the heat to low if needed. The consistency should be very thick, like mashed potatoes. This step took about 12-15 minutes.
- Remove the pan from the heat and set the pan in a bowl of ice for 5-10 minutes to quicken the cooling process. The temperature of the mixture should be at room temperature.
- Stir in the almond extract.
- If you have a food processor, process the white sugar for a minute or so so that the granules become finer.
- While the mixture is cooling, cream together the butter and processed sugar using a stand mixer with the whisk attachment until light and fluffy. Do this for 5 minutes until the sugar is completely creamed and there is no graininess left.
- Add the cooled flour mixture and beat it until it all combines and looks like whipped cream. This will take about another 3-5 minutes of beating. Keep scraping the sides of the bowl while the mixture is beating together so that everything gets well incorporated. Once the mixture has the texture of fluffy whipped cream, you are ready to ice the cake.
- Once the cakes are cool, place one cake on a cake plate. Spread frosting on top of that layer, then place the other cake on top of the frosted cake. Use the remainder of the frosting to frost the top and sides of the cake.
- Decorate the sides and top with sliced and whole almonds, as the picture shows, if desired.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
I can’t wait to try this recipe! All of your cakes look lovely. Thank you for sharing your family recipes!
Hi I am going to make this cake right now to try it out and see if its as perfect as it looks =p I have a question though, I don’t have a food processer and I couldn’t find “extra fine” sugar at the store, when I asked for help finding it the woman looked at me like I was insane. So could I just add the sugar when the flour/milk mixture is still warm so it melts and is evenly distributed? or would that mess up the science and come out funky? Thanks for your help!
Ive been making this frosting for years now but may I suggest using superfine sure. You can skip the processing step and it comes out perfect!
I made this cake for Christmas Eve. I baked the cake layers a day ahead. The first batch of cooked flour and milk didn’t thicken enough-I put them both in the pan at the same time. I tried a second time by heating the milk first, then slowly stirring in the flour. That thickened better, but the most thickening seemed to come from cooking it a long time to cook the liquid off. I used superfine sugar in the icing and it did require several minutes of beating to achieve a smooth texture without graininess. The cake was beautiful and… Read more »
I don’t have a carton of eggs whites, just eggs. Can I skip the carton and if so how many eggs whites would you suggest?
I hear ya, Shannon. It scared me at first, too, but I made two batches and they both turned out fine! You can do it!
i plan to make a wedding cake for a dear friends wedding and was wondering if this cake might be a possible 3 tier round wedding cake.. I would need the frosting to look elegant and stay in place or be piped from a pastry bag. Also does this frosting require refrigeration? Thank you in advance for taking the time to respond!! This cake looks absolutely lovely!
Handy tip: whip the egg whites first and set aside in a different bowl. No need to wash the mixer bowl, just mix cake and fold in whites when you n eed them!
I would put this frosting on every cake I made if I could. You are so right about one taste of it- it’s like HoHo filling!
I just made the frosting for cupcakes. Oh. My. Goodness. I’ve been making buttercreams for ages, but THIS is absolutely amazing! Here’s a link to the picture of the cupcakes. Your frosting is the talk of my workplace. I can’t wait to try the cake, too! https://www.facebook.com/Pintesting/photos/a.270223166435504.1073741825.215509441906877/421039881353831/?type=3&permPage=1
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe! It looks amazing. Pinned it and trying it for a wedding cake, covered in Marzipan. All of your cakes seem heavenly!
Question about the eggs whites… You list 5 egg whites and in parentheses you show 3/4 c plus 3 tablespoons. Doesn’t seem like 5 egg whites it approaching a full cup…..
Hello!
This recipe looks awesome!
I have a question though, I’m in the middle of trying to make this cake, and in the step before adding the egg whites, the “cake batter” seems more like a dough. It doesn’t seem to have enough liquid. Is this the desired texture at this step?
Thanks!
I just made this, and despite whipping the eggwhites to stiff peaks, and folding them in, my layers came out very flat. Also, the batter seemed very dense…. Any ideas as to why?
I too was mesmerized by this cake & just baked it. Layers are thin and dense. I followed the recipe using cake flower but did use buttermilk instead of milk, but I do that all the time. I can tell by looking at these layers the texture is going to be very unpleasant. If anyone can figure where I went wrong I’d like to know as I would like to make this cake correctly.
I have made this Whipped Cream Frosting for MANY years for my Red Velvet cakes. It’s better than Cream Cheese frosting!!! If you are attempting this frosting, PLEASE keep whisking the flour milk mixture constantly until you are ready to add it to the butter and sugar. It can “curdle” if you don’t whisk it. I use my stand mixer and cream the butter and sugar while I cook and cool the flour and milk mixture. Totally worth the time and effort!!! It does need to be refrigerated!
Your cake is absolutely gorgeous!
I have one issue though, I have whipped and whipped my frosting, and it just isn’t whipping up properly,
any idea why that migh tbe??
This cake is delicious, the frosting on the other hand came out a bit strange. I’ve never made a frosting like this and am unfamiliar with it. One thing I didn’t like about the frosting is that I could taste the flour in it, next time I make this I think I’ll do an almond cream cheese frosting.
Cake loose amazing. Question about the frosting, could you use powdered sugar instead of using food processor and regular sugar?
Looks divine! may I ask how long it will keep? I would like to make it for a party, so it should be made at leasr a day in advance. Also, assuming it should be kept refrigerated because of the frosting, should one bring it to room temperature before serving?
Could you do this cake in cupcakes? Want to do something different for a baby shower. Also, can you freeze this cake and/or cupcakes with the frosting on it? If so, what are the freezing techniques with or without the frosting?
Would this work in a 9×13 pan?
I made this cake last night for my daughter’s birthday cake. I tinted the frosting rather than decorating it with almonds and I put raspberry jam between the layers. This was the most delicious white cake I’ve ever made and it felt so good to be 100% from scratch! The texture and flavor of the cake is absolutely perfect! I finally found the white cake recipe I’ve been looking for! Thank you for posting this recipe!
Thanks for the recipe.
I’m a little confused. When do I add the butter/sugar mixture to the milk mixture and the egg whites?
You appear to have missed the step where the butter/sugar mixture gets added to the cake batter.