Almond Cream Cake

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This post is sponsored by Challenge Butter, but all opinions are my own.

This Almond Cream Cake is a tender, velvety and moist almond cake that’s covered in a whipped cream cheese almond frosting! It’s light, lovely and an instant classic!

Best Almond Cake

I am so in love with the base cake of this almond cake. It’s actually my new white cake recipe (yay!) that I’ll be sharing soon and I revamped it for this almond cake. It’s modified from my Moist Vanilla Layer Cake and it has all the amazing moisture and flavor of that cake, but with a whiter color and amazingly tender texture. Pure love!

When switched up for this Almond Cream Cake, it’s perfection. The flavor, the texture, the whipped cream cheese frosting – it’s all just amazing together. And almond is such a great, light flavor for spring. This is definitely a must-make. Can I suggest it for Easter?

Ingredients

There’s nothing too complicated here. It’s our usual vanilla cake ingredients, except you’ll use egg whites and no yolks.

Almond Cake Layers

• All Purpose Flour: Be sure to measure your flour accurately so that you don’t end up with a dry cake.  I always recommend using a food scale to ensure a precise flour measurement. Alternatively, you can spoon the flour into your measuring cup, fluffing it up as you go and leveling it off at the top with a butter knife.
• Baking Powder: For the perfect rise and texture. The baking powder also lends a lighter color for this almond cake.
• Salt: For flavor.
• Unsalted Butter: Always important for a great cake and great flavor. I used my favorite Challenge Butter. Challenge Butter is a high quality butter that goes from farm to fridge in just two days, ensuring that it’s nice and fresh. It has no added hormones, artificial flavors or fillings, so you can feel good about feeding it to your family. If you haven’t tried it before, you definitely need to. The flavor is wonderful and it will definitely elevate your baking and cooking. Their spreadable butter is also a favorite in our house.
• Vegetable Oil: For a touch of extra moisture.
• Sugar: For sweetness and flavor. It also adds to the tender texture of the cake.
• Egg Whites: Since this is basically a white cake, it uses all egg whites.
• Milk: I use 2%, but whole milk would work as well.
• Almond Extract: For flavor.

Almond Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting

• Cream Cheese: It must be room temperature so you don’t end up with little chunks of cream cheese throughout your whipped cream. Again, I use Challenge Cream Cheese. It’s as close to homemade as it gets and has nothing artificial and no added hormones. Plus, it’s nice and creamy.
• Heavy Whipping Cream: You want to be sure it’s HEAVY whipping cream. It has a higher fat content than regular whipping cream, which is going to give you a stiffer and more stable whipped cream.
• Powdered Sugar: This adds sweetness and balances the flavor of cream cheesecake. It also helps to stabilize the whipped cream.
• Almond Extract: For flavor.
• Sliced Almonds: For decorating the cake. I crushed them up a bit.

How to Make Almond Cream Cake

There’s only two components to this cake, making it relatively simple to recreate.

Almond Cake Layers

1. Prep for Baking: Prepare three 8 inch cake pans with parchment paper circles in the bottom and grease Combine Dry Ingredients: Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a medium sized bowl. Set aside.
2. Cream First Ingredients: In a large mixing bowl, cream butter, vegetable oil and sugar together until light in color and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Do not skimp on the creaming time.
3. Add Egg Whites: Add egg whites in three batches, mixing until well combined after each. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to be sure all ingredients are well incorporated.
4. Alternate Dry Ingredients and Milk: Add half of the dry ingredients to the batter and mix until well combined. Add the milk and almond extract and mix until well combined. Add remaining dry ingredients and mix until well combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to be sure all ingredients are well incorporated.
5. Bake: Divide the batter evenly between the cakes pans and bake for about 20-23 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with a few crumbs.
6. Cool: Remove the cakes from the oven and allow to cool for about 2-3 minutes, then remove to cooling racks to cool completely.

Almond Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting

There are a couple different ways to approach this frosting. One way is the way I shared here. Beat the cream cheese until smooth, whip the cream separately and then combine them. The other way, as shared in my Berry Chantilly Cake, is to beat the cheese until smooth, then slowly add the cream to it and whip it all together. The later method seems to give more people trouble as far as getting a stiffer frosting, but feel free to try it both ways and see which you prefer.

1. Beat Cream Cheese Until Smooth: To make the whipped cream cheese frosting, add the cream cheese to a large mixer bowl and beat until smooth and creamy. Set aside.
2. Make Whipped Cream: Add the heavy whipping cream, powdered sugar and almond extract to another large mixing bowl and whip on high speed until stiff peaks form.
3. Combine Cream Cheese and Whipped Cream: Add about 1/3 of the whipped cream to the cream cheese and gently fold together to combine so that you don’t deflate the whipped cream. When mostly combined, add another third of the whipped cream and gently fold together, then add the final third and gently fold together until completely combined.

Build the Cake

1. Flatten Cake Layers: Use a large serrated knife to remove the domes from the top of the cakes so that they’re flat, if needed.
2. Build Cake: Place the first cake on a serving plate or a cardboard cake round. Spread about 1 cup of frosting evenly on top of the cake. Add the second layer of cake and another cup of frosting. Top the cake with the remaining layer.
3. Frost and Decorate: Frost the outside of the cake. Refer to my tutorial for frosting a smooth cake, if needed. Press sliced almond into the sides of the cake, then pipe shells of frosting around the top edge of the cake.
4. Serve and Store Leftovers: Store cake in an air tight container in the fridge. Cake is best if eaten within 2-3 days.

Tips for Success

• Ingredient Temperature: Room temperature butter is important for proper creaming in the cake. To avoid a lumpy cream cheese frosting, be sure the cream cheese is room temperature as well. However, the heavy whipping cream should be nice and cold. Keep it refrigerated until right before you need it so that it whips up light and fluffy.
• Weigh Dry Ingredients: I always recommend a food scale to be sure things are accurate. Nobody wants a dry cake. If you really don’t want to go that route, you can spoon the flour into your measuring cup, fluffing it up as you go and leveling it off at the top with a butter knife. Just do not pack it into the cup.
• High Fat Whipping Cream: Be sure to use HEAVY whipping cream, as opposed to regular whipping cream. The higher fat content is going to give you a more sturdy whipped cream that whips into a stiffer peak.
• Cream the Butter, Oil & Sugar Well: I urge you not to skimp on the creaming time for the butter, oil and sugar. Keep beating them together until the mixture fluffs up and lightens in color, typically 2-3 minutes.
• Don’t Over-Mix the Batter: If you over-mix the batter, your cake won’t come out as soft and fluffy. Stop mixing it once everything is well combined.

Storage and Freezing

With the cream cheese and whipped cream based frosting, you definitely want to refrigerate this cake. If you have an air-tight cake carrier that you can store it in, that’s even better.

As for freezing, you can freeze the cake layers ahead of frosting the cake, if you like. I don’t typically recommend freezing fully frosted cakes, but you can freeze the slices for later. To freeze, wrap the cake layers or slices tightly in a layer of plastic wrap then foil, then freeze it in an airtight container or freezer bag. Defrost it in the fridge before using/digging in.

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• Raspberry Almond Layer Cake
• Almond Amaretto Cupcakes
• Toffee Almond Coffee Cake
• No Bake Cherry Almond Cheesecake
• Almond Amaretto Bundt Cake