| Almond Delight Cake | ||||
| Makes 1 cake | ||||
| Cake | Syrup | |||
| 2 sticks | butter, thinly sliced, softened | 1 1/2 cups | sugar | |
| 8 oz | (1 brick) cream cheese | 1 stick | butter, thinly sliced | |
| 2 1/2 cups | sugar | 1/2 cup | almond liqueur | |
| ________ | ||||
| 1/4 cup | almond liqueur | |||
| 1 tbls | vanilla extract | |||
| 2 1/2 cups | all-purpose flour | |||
| 6 | eggs | |||
| ________ | ||||
| 1/2 cup | sliced almonds (try the bulk food aisle) | |||
| 1/4 cup | sugar | |||
| Cake | ||||
 Preheat
the oven to 325°.In a mixer equipped with a beater, cream 2 sticks of softened butter, the cream cheese, and 2 1/2 cups sugar. Beat on high for about two minutes until it’s light and fluffy. Add the almond liqueur and vanilla extract. With the mixer on low, slowly add the flour (“slowly” so it doesn’t go flying all over the kitchen). With the mixer still on low, add the eggs in one at a time. Once the last egg is mixed in, stop the mixer. Grease and flour a bundt pan (or spray it with Baker’s Joy). Sprinkle about an 1/8 cup of sugar into the bottom of the pan, evenly distribute the sliced almonds over the sugar, then sprinkle another 1/8 cup of sugar over the almonds. Pour in the cake batter. Bake at 325° for 70 minutes and a cake tester comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool in the pan while you get the syrup going. |
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| Syrup | ||||
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Add all the syrup ingredients into a large Pyrex measuring cup. Nuke it
in the microwave for 90 seconds. While the mixture is heating up, use
the end of a wooden spoon and poke about two dozen holes in that pretty
cake sitting in the pan. Try not to go all the way through to the bottom
(which will become the top). It’s ok if the cake tears a little, you’re
going to flip it over anyway. Now take the sugar goodness out of the microwave and stir it until all the butter is dissolved. With the cake still in the pan, pour most of the mixture over the cake getting it into all those holes you made. Save yourself about a 1/2 cup of the mixture to drizzle on the top later. Let the cake cool in the pan for about an hour. Flip the cake onto a serving platter (perhaps one with a lip so the drizzle doesn’t go too far). Nuke the remaining sugar mixture for 60 seconds then artfully pour it over the cake letting it drool down the sides. Let the cake cool for about another half an hour to let the sugar mixture set up. |
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