ombre almond cake with raspberry filling

As I recently mentioned, it was  Scarlett’s birthday earlier this week. To celebrate it, I decided to make a cake, even though I haven’t made one in years (literally. something happened to one of my cake pans before I arrived in Tashkent and I didn’t purchase a new set until right before packout for Belgrade, so it’s been a few years, at least).

I surprised myself and ended up making a truly delicious almond cake with raspberry filling — for the humans and an apparently delicious bone-shaped dog cake for the birthday girl. One of the best parts about this cake recipe is, I think, the marzipan. Grant and I love almond-flavored everything, and he especially enjoys almond cake. I wanted this cake to be really, really almond-y so, as you may note in the ingredients, I included almond flavor wherever possible (milk and extract, plus the marzipan). The marzipan also kept the cake incredibly moist, and it may just be the secret ingredient here.

There was an opinion floating around that while the cake was wonderful, the raspberry didn’t necessarily add anything; it may have interfered with the wonderfulness that was the cake and the icing. So if you don’t want anything getting in the way of your almond cake, by all means omit the raspberry and fill it in with the frosting of your choice! Personally, I loved the raspberry and don’t regret a thing. Although I am toying with the idea of a chocolate filling next time…

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 C cake flour
• 1 C almond milk at room temperature (you can use other milk but I wanted my cake to be super almond-y!)
• 6 large egg whites at room temperature
• 2 t almond extract
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 C granulated sugar
• 4 t baking powder
• 1 t salt
• 1 1/2 C cubed butter, softened
• 200 g (~7-8 oz) marzipan, split into smaller pieces (I just pulled it apart with my hands)
• 1/2 C raspberry jam

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 8-inch cake pans and line the bottoms with buttered parchment paper
2. Whisk together almond milk, egg whites, and extracts in a medium bowl
3. Mix cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in an electric mixer at slow speed. Add butter continue beating on low for 1-2 more minutes.
4. Add all but 1/2 cup of the almond milk mixture to the flour mixture and beat at medium speed for 1 1/2 minutes.
5. Add the marzipan, a little at a time, and the remaining 1/2 cup of milk mixture and beat until incorporated
6. Pour batter evenly between the two prepared cake pans
7. Bake until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 27 to 30 minutes, switching the pans halfway through
8. Allow cakes to cool completely before assembling. Also before assembling, use a large bread knife to even out the tops, if desired
9. Put the first cake bottom up, so the flat part is up, and evenly spread the raspberry jam, leaving 1/4 inch border
10. Place the second cake on top, also bottom up, and use your favorite frosting. I used Swiss meringue buttercream, and it was delicious!