Julie Clark
Posted: Updated:
Almond Cream Cake
This post may contain affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy.
Light, moist and velvety, this Almond Cream Cake has a homemade cooked, whipped frosting that pairs perfectly with the almond cake. Decorate the cake simply with sliced almonds.
If you’re looking at this cake and happen to remember the pinkalicious cake we shared, you’ll think that we’re in an almond kind of mood. It’s true. We do love our almonds.
We posted this cake recipe back in 2015, but I wanted to give this cake the credit that it was due and give it a little update for you.
About this Almond Cream Cake Recipe:
- Flavor: This is a white cake with a simple, sweet flavor. It has a slight taste of almond, but you could easily switch that out for vanilla if you’d like. The frosting and the cake are not overly sweet…which makes it dangerous to have around.
- Texture: Box mix cakes tend to be light and airy, but this homemade cake has more of a dense, velvety texture. It’s sturdy, but that doesn’t mean it is dry. It’s moist. And the smooth frosting will melt in your mouth.
Homemade White Cake
First of all, this almond cream cake is a completely homemade white cake. That means from scratch. No boxed mix. I love boxed cake mixes because they turn out perfectly nearly every time. But making a cake from scratch has always been this challenge that I’ve wanted to tackle.
In finding a delicious recipe for white cake (which happens to be my favorite flavor), we had several failures. I wanted a moist cake, but I wanted it to have a light crumb and be thick, but not heavy. We tossed aside several different attempts, but when I saw how this cake baked up? I knew this was it. For a homemade cake, this one beat the rest. Its velvety and moist. Can you see the texture in this photo?
Cake Flour or All-Purpose Flour
The recipe uses cake flour instead of all-purpose flour. All purpose flour has more protein in it (10-12 grams in all-purpose as opposed to 8 grams in cake flour), which forms gluten when you mix it. The less gluten there is, the more tender the cake is.
The starch in the cake flour helps to stabilize the cake. There’s more science behind the reasons you should use cake flour when baking a cake. Although I like learning the science behind baking and sharing it with you, sometimes it is just easier to let the experts explain it.
Whipped Frosting
The second special part of this cake is the frosting. Although we love our buttercream recipe, I was wanting to try something a little different for this cake. I’ve always loved whipped frosting because it is less sweet than many store-bought buttercreams.
I searched for a delicious whipped frosting and came across this recipe that got rave reviews. It’s a cooked flour frosting…something I had never tried before. This frosting takes a bit of time to make, but one spoonful and you may just be hooked.
How to Make Cooked Flour Frosting
When you make the frosting, it is important to follow the directions carefully.
- Cook the milk and flour together over medium heat until the mixture is very thick and resembles mashed potatoes. Don’t undercook this! It took about 10 minutes for me to get my mixture to this texture. Stir constantly while it is cooking so it doesn’t burn on the saucepan.
At this point you’ll probably be questioning how in the world this is going to taste good on your precious cake. Trust me. It will. Here are the steps after the flour & milk mixture is cooked.
- Let the flour and milk mixture cool to room temperature and add the almond flavor. You can speed up the process by placing the pan on ice if you’d like. It cools within minutes if you use this trick. Also, stir the frosting a few times while it is cooling. This will prevent a film from developing over your frosting. Stirring it and even placing plastic wrap right on top of the frosting will help to keep your frosting smooth.
- While this is cooling, take the granulated sugar and put it through your food processor to make the grains of sugar finer. Why do this? In the next step, you’ll cream the butter and sugar together until there is no graininess left. It will take less time if you process the sugar first. Or you can use a superfine sugar.
- Whip the butter and sugar together for about 5 minutes, then add the cooled flour mixture. Beat the mixture with the wire whisk attachment for a good 5 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed. The mixture will go from having a separated look to coming together into a beautiful whipped cream. Just when you think it isn’t going to work it will start getting fluffy. Go ahead. Sneak a little taste. Just be warned that you may not be able to stop eating it.
We wanted a nice, thick layer of frosting on our almond cream cake. If you’d just like a thin layer of frosting you can halve the frosting recipe.
Decorate a Cake with Almonds
You can leave the almond cream cake a pure, snowy white if you’d like, or press some sliced almonds onto the sides. Arrange a few whole almonds on the top . Make it your own and be proud of it!
I’d say our first try at making cooked frosting was a success. What about you? Have you ever tried homemade whipped frosting or from-scratch cakes? I’d love it if you shared any other hints for homemade cakes or whipped frosting with us!
Recipe Variations
- This cake is excellent with a raspberry sauce filling inside.
- Instead of the cooked flour frosting, try a buttercream frosting or cream cheese frosting.
Next, try our dark chocolate cheesecake, almond raspberry bars, cranberry almond cookies, or almond apple bread pudding.
Almond Cream Cake
Light, moist and velvety, this Almond Cream Cake has a homemade cooked, whipped frosting that pairs perfectly with the almond cake. Top with sliced almonds.
Servings 15 servings
Prep Time 50 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 35 minutes
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup egg whites plus 3 tablespoons*
- 1 cup salted butter room temperature, 8 ounces
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar 300 grams
- 3 cups cake flour* (345 grams) spooned & measured carefully
- 1/2 teaspoon salt 3 grams
- 2 teaspoons baking powder 6 grams
- 1 cup milk 2% milkfat, 8 ounces
- 1 teaspoon almond extract 4 grams
Frosting:
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 83 grams
- 2 cups 2% milk 16 ounces
- 1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract 6 grams
- 2 cups granulated sugar 400 grams
- 2 cups salted butter softened, 1 pound
- Sliced almonds and whole almonds for decorating
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Grease and flour 2 8" round cake pans.
- Using a stand mixer, beat the egg whites with the whisk attachment until they are stiff and form peaks. This may take a minute or two. Pour the egg whites into another bowl and place them in the refrigerator until you're ready to add them to the batter. ¾ cup egg whites
- Using the same bowl that you used to beat the egg whites, place the softened butter in and cream for about 2 minutes (using the beater blade attachment) until it is white in appearance. 1 cup salted butter
- Add the sugar to the butter and beat until fluffy (about another 1-2 minutes). 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- In a small bowl, combine the flour (measured carefully*), salt and baking powder. Set aside. 3 cups cake flour*, ½ teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoons baking powder
- In another bowl, combine the milk and almond extract. 1 cup milk, 1 teaspoon almond extract
- Add the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar mixture alternately with the milk.
- Add the stiffly beaten eggs to the cake batter. Fold the egg whites in gently. Do not over mix at this point. If you do, your cake will become more dense.
- Pour the cake batter equally into the prepared cake pans. Bake the cakes for 25-27 minutes or until the top bounces back when you touch it.
- Allow the cakes to cool for 10 minutes, then loosen the edges and remove them from the pans to a wire rack, allowing them to cool completely.
- While the layer cakes are cooling, prepare the frosting. In a saucepan, whisk the flour into the milk over medium-low heat until it thickens. Stir it constantly, lowering the heat to low if needed. The consistency should be very thick, like mashed potatoes. This step took about 12-15 minutes. ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, 2 cups 2% milk
- Remove the pan from the heat and set the pan in a bowl of ice for 5-10 minutes to quicken the cooling process. The temperature of the mixture should be at room temperature. Stir in the almond extract. 1 ½ teaspoons almond extract
- If you have a food processor, process the white sugar for a minute or so so that the granules become finer. 2 cups granulated sugar
- While the mixture is cooling, cream together the butter and processed sugar using a stand mixer with the whisk attachment until light and fluffy. Do this for 5 minutes until the sugar is completely creamed and there is no graininess left. 2 cups salted butter
- Add the cooled flour mixture and beat it until it all combines and looks like whipped cream. This will take about another 3-5 minutes of beating. Keep scraping the sides of the bowl while the mixture is beating together so that everything gets well incorporated. Once the mixture has the texture of fluffy whipped cream, you are ready to ice the cake.
- Once the cakes are cool, place one cake on a cake plate. Spread frosting on top of that layer, then place the other cake on top of the frosted cake. Use the remainder of the frosting to frost the top and sides of the cake.
- Decorate the sides and top with sliced and whole almonds, as the picture shows, if desired. Sliced almonds and whole almonds for decorating
Video
Notes
- This is about 6-7 large egg whites. *Some are having problems with the cake being too dense. This can happen when you mistakenly add too much flour. When you measure the flour, spoon it from the flour container gently into the measuring cup. Do NOT pack it down at all. This technique will help you not put too much flour into the cake.
- If you only have unsalted butter you can use it, but add ¼ teaspoon salt.
Nutrition
Calories: 650kcal | Carbohydrates: 70g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 38g | Saturated Fat: 24g | Cholesterol: 102mg | Sodium: 444mg | Potassium: 178mg | Sugar: 49g | Vitamin A: 1215IU | Calcium: 94mg | Iron: 0.5mg
One question though…if I wanted to use this recipe but another flavor, like chocolate, how would I do that? Cocoa instead of almond extract? I’d love some tips! Before today, my husband brags about my cooking, but says I’m not the baker in the family!lol! I’m on a mission to bake as well as I cook!🥰
This recipe was extremely involved, but so worth it! Made this exactly by the recipe EXCEPT I didn’t have cake flour. I remedied this by removing 2 TBL per cup of the flour (6TBL) and replacing with corn starch and sifted twice (per googles suggestion😜). This is hands down the MOST tender cake I have EVER made! That said…..I’m not a fan of the butter frosting. Next time I’ll do a traditional buttercream. It’s good, just not my preference. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU 🙏 FOR POSTING! I’m forever in your debt!❤️❤️❤️
Salted or unsalted butter? It never specifies that I can see!
So if I was making this for a party I would refrigerate it over night and then it could sit out the next day for the party?
Just wanted to say my family has made this frosting for years! We called it Collette’s frosting after my best friend’s mom. We just bring the milk and flour mixture to a boil and let cool.I’ve even used water and flour when my daughter was dairy free (I don’t count butter as dairy). We never processed the granulated sugar ( never had a food processor in the olden days). When the cooked and cooled flour mixture hits the granulated sugar it gradually “melts” it. The only thing we did differently was add the cooled flour mixture a spoonful at a… Read more »
Attempt #3 at posting my experience, so I will keep it short.
3 hours to make from start to finish.
Despite following the directions exactly, the cake did not rise much and was extremely dense.
The frosting had a great silky consistency, but tasted like a cube of butter.
This was very labor intensive and I found the recipe difficult to follow.
My friends said it had good flavor and I will try it again!
For the frosting when you say white flour do you mean powdered sugar or AP flour?
Super cake..well worth the effort! Thank you.
trying to find the video for this recipe but so far no luck, BTW the best cinnamon roll recipe is still my go to my family love it and I make it sugar free for my husband
Have you ever tried using confectioners sugar instead of the granulated? I would love to not pull out the food processor!
I’ve made countless cakes, cupcakes, pies and desserts in the last 35 years. I’m not even a cake person. But a dear friend wanted an almond cake for her birthday and I decided to try this recipe back in October 2015. Ever since this is MY favorite dessert and my go to cake when I want to impress. I have never had a cake prior with such a perfect density nor have I ever liked frosting…..until this recipe. I was that person who scraped the icing off a piece of cake. This isn’t icing, this is something out of heaven,… Read more »
I don’t like to leave negative comments but honestly the whole recipe was a flop for me. I love almond so I had to try it. First off, it was very time consuming, longer for me than suggested prep time. I’ve never added whipped egg whites to a cake where folding them in where they just didn’t incorporate however the cake baked up just fine. Nice and flat but not the texture I was expecting. It did come out more dense like a few others even though I took great care in measuring the flour. Second, the frosting was a… Read more »
Hi! I just tried this cake for the first time and I think it will be great! I’m always confused about when to refrigerate, with this whipped icing is this cake best kept in the fridge or can it just stay on the counter?
I love your recipes & have tried quite a few so fr. The chocolate covered cherry cake & the strawberry bread are particularly delicious. However, coming from the UK I find cup measurements quite difficult. Would you be able to provide metric measures with all your recipes, please? I know some of the recipes are metric as well & that’s great. Look forward to more lovely cakes.
Hi! I’m so looking forward to trying this out! But quick question: I only have 8 inch pans. Can I use two 8 inch pans instead? Would I need to increase the baking time or make any other changes? I’m fairly new to baking so appreciate any help! Thanks!