This almond layer cake with cherry whipped cream is light and flavorful and perfect for the warmer weather months! It’s filled and topped with a simply delightful cherry whipped cream, what could be better?
This cake will become a staple in your repertoire for special occasions, for Mother’s Day, for Father’s Day or for enjoying with friends and family during your summer bbqs.
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The beauty of a simple layer cake
There's nothing quite like baking from scratch and serving up a beautiful dessert that looks like it took a lot of effort. But, the secret is, it came together very easily!
This Almond Layer Cake with Cherry Whipped Cream recipe requires no mixer to make the cake batter. Instead, it replies upon a food processor to properly mix the ingredients so that they fully combine and emulsify.
Emulsify is a fancy word for fully combining two or more ingredients that don't typically combine well together. For example, oil and water.
In this case, emulsification is necessary for the eggs (6 of them!) and butter to incorporate fully into the batter without them curdling said batter.
The food processor helps bring all the ingredients together with that fast-moving blade.
The recipe walks you through the steps to follow to allow for the batter to come together, giving you a perfectly delicious almond layer cake.
Topping it off
For this cake, I wanted to give you a filling and frosting that kept the cake light and also complemented the almond flavor of the cake.
Almond and cherries pair so well together. And so this delightful cherry whipped cream was born!
This recipe takes the juice that comes in a bottle of maraschino cherries and adds it to a not overly sweet homemade whipped cream recipe. The result is a light and flavorful topping that pairs oh-so-well with this almond cake!
Ingredients Needed to Make this recipe
To make this almond layer cake, you'll need the following ingredients:
- Cake flour: using cake flour keeps this cake super light. If you don't have cake flour, you can substitute for all-purpose flour. The cake will be a bit denser with all-purpose flour. Be sure to fluff up your flour before measuring it using the scoop and level technique. To make your own cake flour, measure out two and a half cups all-purpose flour, remove 5 tablespoons and replace with 5 tablespoons cornstarch. Whisk together
- Baking powder
- Salt
- Granulated Sugar
- Eggs: for this recipe, you need lots of 'em! 6 large eggs to be exact! Believe me, this cake is well worth the half dozen eggs. Be sure to leave them out of the fridge for at least 30 minutes prior to using. This will allow them to incorporate better into the batter
- Vanilla extract: choose the pure variety rather than imitation vanilla. It's a bit more expensive, however, it will make your cake taste much better and less artificial
- Almond extract: same as above. A little goes a long way with almond extract, so one bottle will last you quite a while. Best to invest in a pure extract versus an imitation flavoring
- Unsalted Butter: no need to bring it to room temperature, as you'll be melting it
To make the cherry whipped cream, you'll need the following ingredients:
- Heavy cream or whipping cream: do not substitute with light cream, half and half or milk, as these will not whip up the same way heavy or whipping cream will
- Maraschino cherry juice: buy yourself a jar of maraschino cherries and strain out 3 ounces of the liquid for this ingredient. Save the cherries for topping / garnishing the baked cake
- Vanilla extract
- Powdered Sugar
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Ingredients
Almond Layer Cake
- 2 ¼ cups cake flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 6 large eggs room temperature
- 2 ¼ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ½ teaspoons almond extract
- 1 ½ cups unsalted butter melted and hot
Cherry Whipped Cream
- 2 cups heavy or whipping cream
- 3 ounces Maraschino cherry juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- Maraschino cherries for topping optional
Instructions
Make Almond Cakes:
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF (177ºC).
- Line with parchment paper two 8-inch round cake pans, then grease parchment with softened butter and coat with flour. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- To the bowl of a food processor, add the sugar, eggs, vanilla, and almond extracts, processing until combined, about 10 seconds.
- With the food processor running, add melted butter in a steady stream until incorporated.
- Transfer this sugar mixture to a large bowl.
- Sift flour mixture over sugar mixture in 3 additions, whisking to combine after each addition until few streaks of flour remain.
- Continue to gently whisk the batter until almost no lumps remain.
- Divide cake batter evenly among the prepared cake pans.
- Bake until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean, 24 to 28 minutes, rotating pans halfway through baking.
- Let cakes cool in pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes.
- Run a paring knife around the edges of the pans to loosen, if needed.
- Remove cakes from pans, discarding the parchment paper, and let cool completely on rack, about 2 hours.
- While the cakes cool, prepare the cherry whipped cream.
Make Cherry Whipped Cream:
- Place the mixer bowl and whisk attachment in the freezer for 10 minutes.
- Once the bowl and whisk are cold, add to the bowl the heavy cream, cherry juice, vanilla extract, and powdered sugar.
- Begin whisking on low speed until the sugar has been incorporated, about 30-60 seconds then gradually increase speed to high, whisking until stiff peaks form. The whipped cream should hold its shape when the whisk attachment is lifted out of the bowl.
- Once cakes have cooled, top one layer with an even layer of whipped cream then place the second layer on top and add remaining whipped cream.
- Garnish with additional maraschino cherries, if desired.
Notes
- Cake is best consumed just after making.
- If preparing in advance, keep cake layers and whipped cream separate and assemble just prior to serving. Wrap cooled cake layers in plastic wrap and store at room temperature up to 2 days or in the fridge for up to 2 weeks prior to using
Nutrition
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