Julie Clark
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Almond Cream Cake
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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.
If you’re looking at this cake and happen to remember the pinkalicious cake we shared, you’ll think that we’re in an almond kind of mood. It’s true. We do love our almonds.
We posted this cake recipe back in 2015, but I wanted to give this cake the credit that it was due and give it a little update for you.
Almond Cream Cake Recipe
- Flavor: This is a white cake with a simple, sweet flavor. It has a slight taste of almond, but you could easily switch that out for vanilla if you’d like. The frosting and the cake are not overly sweet…which makes it dangerous to have around.
- Texture: Box mix cakes tend to be light and airy, but this homemade cake has more of a dense, velvety texture. It’s sturdy, but that doesn’t mean it is dry. It’s moist. And the smooth frosting will melt in your mouth.
Homemade White Cake
First of all, this almond cream cake is 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. Its 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. 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 flour 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. Here are the steps after the flour & milk mixture is cooked.
- 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 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!
Almond Cream Cake
Light, moist and velvety, this Almond Cream Cake has a homemade cooked, whipped frosting that pairs perfectly with the almond cake. Top with sliced almonds.
Servings 15 servings
Prep Time 50 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 35 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 cup salted butter room temperature, 8 ounces
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar 300 grams
- 3 cups cake flour* (345 grams) spooned & measured carefully
- 1/2 teaspoon salt 3 grams
- 2 teaspoons baking powder 6 grams
- 1 cup milk 2% milkfat
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 3/4 cup egg whites plus 3 tablespoons*
Frosting:
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 cups milk
- 1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
- 2 cups salted 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
*This is about 6-7 large egg whites. *Some are having problems with the cake being too dense. This can happen when you mistakenly add too much flour. When you measure the flour, spoon it from the flour container gently into the measuring cup. Do NOT pack it down at all. This technique will help you not put too much flour into the cake.
Refer to the article above for more tips and tricks.
The calories shown are based on the cake being cut into 15 pieces, with 1 serving being 1 slice of cake. Since different brands of ingredients have different nutritional information, the calories shown are just an estimate. **We are not dietitians and recommend you seek a nutritionist for exact nutritional information. The information in the nutrition box are calculated through a program and there is room for error. If you need an accurate count, I recommend running the ingredients through your favorite nutrition calculator.**
Nutrition
Calories: 650kcal | Carbohydrates: 70g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 38g | Saturated Fat: 24g | Cholesterol: 102mg | Sodium: 444mg | Potassium: 178mg | Sugar: 49g | Vitamin A: 1215IU | Calcium: 94mg | Iron: 0.5mg
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.
The frosting you’re referring to here is an Ermine Buttercream. It’s one of the 6 classic buttercreams – American, Ermine, French, German, Swiss, and Italian – and it’s the most stable of them. It’s an early 20th-century frosting developed in the south, and is the original and authentic frosting for Velvet Cakes – Red Velvet, White Velvet, etc. It’s called an Ermine because it’s soft, like the coat of an Ermine Weasel. It goes by other names as well, one of which you’re using, flour buttercream. It’s also called a roux buttercream, sometimes, which is inaccurate since a roux is… Read more »
I’ve made the cake 3 times now. The texture is “Perfect”, light & airy while smooth & velvety to the tongue- All while maintaining a pronounced crumb of smooth rich cake in each bite. It has a fluffy & soft velvety crumb though dense & thick while smooth in texture – similar to Japanese Cotton Cake. Almond Cream Cake lives up to expectations of richness & satisfying though remains subtle to complement the Buttercream & any filling you add. I used a filling of Almond Pastry Crème with Amaretto, similar to Mousseline Cream. I topped it with caramelized Almonds. In… Read more »
I have been making this frosting for 40+ years. The secret to a smooth milk/flour mixture is to vigorously shake the flour and milk in a container/jar and then pour into sauce pan , and stir continually till thick. You will have no lumps. Only frosting recipe I use. Great cake!
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 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!
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!
A little advice from Europe: cook the sugar with milk and flour. Mix the butter until creamy and add it as usual – this saves the time, believe me…
Btw, great recipe!
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!
It was average. I don’t plan to bake this again.
Just popping in to leave a quick review!! I tested this cake recipe a few weeks ago looking for a 3 tier wedding cake and LOVED IT. Fantastic flavor, crumb and easy to put together! This weekend was the wedding and I couldn’t be happier knowing what I put out was this delicious. It stacked easily and held up during an hour of transport in the scorching Florida summer. Definitely a keeper, thank you sooo much for this recipe! 10 stars!
I made this cake, and it was absolutely delicious! It was easy to make, even the icing was easy it’s a little different. And you were right about the icing, it was some of the best icing I’ve ever tasted! My family loves this cake, I will be making it again!
When making this frosting, it is best to use Baker’s sugar and you should add the milk and flour mixture a tablespoon at a time and beat well between additions. Also, you should fold the batter into the beaten eggs very carefully, if you don’t do this step gently, you will deflate the egg whites and end up with a very dense pound cake.
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 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!
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!