This golden almond cake almost dissolves in your mouth — it’s soft and moist, and bursting with nutty flavour, and more importantly it has a beautiful crust. It’s the perfect cake for when you are entertaining because you can serve it with fruit and chocolate — more dessert for everyone.

Ingredients
Instructions
- 1Add the dry ingredients to a mixing bowl and whisk for half a minute.
- 2Add the butter and sour cream and whisk on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened, then whisk on medium speed and beat for a minute and a half to incorporate air.
- 3Scrape down the sides and add the eggs one by one, beating for 20 seconds between each addition. Add the extracts with the last egg.
- 4Scoop the batter into a prepared cake pan (refer notes below), and bake for 35-45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. The cake should start to shrink from the sides of the pan only after you remove the cake from the oven.
- 5Let the golden almond cake cool, for 10 minutes before you unmould it. You could help it along by running a metal spatula around the cake — against the side of the pan.
- 6Serving: It is at its best when it is warm. Serve with: 1. a dusting of powdered sugar, or 2. raspberries, or 3. peaches, or 4. chocolate, or 5. sour cream ganache, or 6. crème fraîche topped with fresh peaches or raspberries.
Notes
Equipment: One 23-cm (9-inch) cake pan, greased, with parchment lining the bottom. Grease the parchment too, then dust the cake pan with flour. Storage: The golden almond cake stays fresh for 2 days when stored in an airtight container, and up to 5 days when stored in the fridge. If you have a problem digesting unblanched almonds, use blanched almonds — take a look at this post on how to blanch almonds. To toast the almonds, spread them on a baking sheet and bake the unblanched almonds for 7 minutes or until pale golden, and the blanched almonds for 2 minutes. Stir it about twice to prevent overbrowning, and ensure that it is all evenly toasted. When the almonds have cooled completely, add them to a food processor, along with the 1/2 a cup of sugar (from the 1 cup of sugar), and pulse them in bursts until you get a fine powder. Pulse in bursts to ensure that the food processor doesn’t get too hot, and look at the powder now and then to ensure it doesn’t become pasty.