Another weird food holiday (my first was National Blueberry Pancake Day): it’s National Almond Day! Yippeee! I love love love almonds. And since it was my birthday last week, and my birthday dessert was a tempura banana (no complaining here, it was delicious), I thought I should make myself an amaretto cake – two celebrations in one! Plus, I’m going to have a happy hour with a friend after I bake this cake, and it was her birthday last week too — three celebrations in one!
Since I’m calling this my birthday cake, I decided I would make it only moderately healthy. I made a vegan version, used half whole-wheat flour, and cut out a little fat and sugar.
But I was really surprised that I could not tell I had changed anything from the original recipe. The last time I made it, it was full of eggs, heavy cream, sour cream, butter, white flour, and lots more sugar. I seriously could not taste the difference.
And then I calculated the nutrition facts — one more reason for celebration today.
adapted from Little Cakes
serves 10
3/4 C all purpose flour
3/4 C whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
pinch of salt
Ener-g egg replacer (2 eggs’ worth)
1/4 C Earth Balance, softened
1/2 C raw sugar
1/4 C unsweetened applesauce
1/4 C unsweetened almond milk
1/4 C plain soy creamer
1/2 t almond extract
1/2 C toasted almond slices
2 T amaretto (almond flavored liqueur)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Sift together dry ingredients and set aside. Then prepare egg replacers and set aside — I whipped these a lot longer than I usually do to make them a little bit stiffer because the original recipe ends with folding in a stiff egg white. This definitely did the trick.
Cream together Earth Balance and sugar. Then add remaining wet ingredients except the amaretto, and combine with dry ingredients. Then fold in almonds.Pour into greased 9-inch cake pan and bake for about 30 minutes until cake is slightly golden and cooked through.
So – here’s what turns this delicious almond cake into an amaretto cake: using a toothpick or fork, poke holes all over the top of the cake.
Then douse the cake with amaretto. Happy.
This is so the way to celebrate National Almond Day. And my belated birthday. And my friend’s belated birthday (Happy Birthday Kristin!)
Nutrition facts per serving: Calories: 197; Calories from Fat: 67; Total Fat: 7.5g; Saturated Fat: 1.6g; Cholesterol: 0mg; Sodium: 308mg; Total Carbohydrates: 26.0g; Dietary Fiber: 1.8g; Sugars: 13.6g; Protein: 2.9g
Leave a Reply