Almond Cake With Apricot Brandy Sauce Recipes

APRICOT ALMOND CAKE WITH ROSEWATER AND CARDAMOM

Steps:

• Put the dried apricots into a small saucepan, cover them with the cold water, and drop in the cracked cardamom pods with their fragrant seeds. Put on the heat, then bring to the boil and let it bubble for 10 minutes--don't stray too far away from the pan, as by the end of the 10 minutes the pan will be just about out of water and you want to make sure it doesn't actually run dry as the apricots will absorb more water as they cool.
• Take the pan off the heat, place on a cold, heatproof surface and let the apricots cool. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C/gas mark 4/350 degrees F. Grease the sides of your springform cake tin and line the bottom with baking parchment.
• Remove 5 of the dried apricots and tear each in half, then set aside for the time being. Discard the cardamom husks, leaving the seeds in the pan.
• Pour and scrape out the sticky contents of the pan into the bowl of a food processor. Add the almond meal, polenta, baking powder, superfine sugar and eggs, and give a good long blitz to combine.
• Open the top of the processor, scrape down the batter, add 2 teaspoons of lemon juice and the rosewater, and blitz again, then scrape into the prepared tin and smooth with a spatula. Arrange the apricot halves around the circumference of the tin.
• Bake for 40 minutes, though if the cake is browning up a lot before it's actually ready, you may want to cover loosely with foil at the 30-minute mark. When it's ready, the cake will be coming away from the edges of the tin, the top will feel firm, and a cake tester will come out with just one or two damp crumbs on it.
• Remove the cake to a wire rack. If you're using apricot jam to decorate, you may want to warm it a little first so that it's easier to spread; rose petal jam is so lusciously soft-set, it shouldn't need any help. Stir a teaspoon of lemon juice into the jam and brush over the top of the cake, then sprinkle with the chopped pistachios and leave the cake to cool in its tin before unspringing and removing to a plate.

APRICOT BRANDY POUND CAKE III

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour a 10 inch tube pan. Mix together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
• Combine the sour cream, rum flavoring, orange extract, almond extract, lemon extract, vanilla extract and apricot brandy. Set aside. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the sour cream and flavorings mixture, stirring just until incorporated.
• Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool.

ALMOND CAKE WITH APRICOT BRANDY SAUCE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°F Lightly butter a 9-inch round cake pan; set aside.
• With a mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy - about 3 to 4 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, including yolk, beating well after each addition. Add the preserves, sour cream and extract and beat for 1 minute more.
• Stir together the flour, baking powder and salt; lightly fold almond paste into the batter.
• Spread evenly in prepared pan and sprinkle with almonds. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until the center of the cake is firm when the pan is lightly tapped.
• To prepare sauce, in a medium saucepan melt butter. Stir in brown sugar and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in remaining ingredients and simmer over low heat for a few minutes more. Drizzle over cake slices.

APRICOT, ALMOND & PINEAPPLE SOUR CREAM COFFEE CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until crumbly, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in extract. In another bowl, whisk flour, almond flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with sour cream, beating well after each addition., Transfer half the batter to a greased 10-in. springform pan. Mix pineapple and apricot preserves; drop by tablespoonfuls over batter. Carefully top with remaining batter. Sprinkle with almonds. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 60-65 minutes. Cool on a wire rack 10 minutes. Loosen sides from pan with a knife. Cool completely. Remove rim from pan. Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar if desired.

BRANDY ALMOND CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat an oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Grease and flour an 8 inch round baking pan.
• Beat the butter and 1 1/2 cups of sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until light and fluffy. The mixture should be noticeably lighter in color. Add the room-temperature egg yolks one at a time, allowing each egg yolk to blend into the butter mixture before adding the next. Pour in the flour alternately with the milk, mixing until just incorporated. Stir in the almond extract. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form in a large glass or metal mixing bowl. Lift your beater or whisk straight up: the egg whites should form a sharp peak that holds its shape. Fold the egg whites into the batter; mixing just enough to evenly combine. Pour the batter into prepared pan.
• Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 90 minutes. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack. Cut any excess cake so that it is flush with the sides of the pan.
• Bring the water and 1 cup of sugar to a boil for 8 to 10 minutes. Reduce heat to a simmer, then add brandy and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Simmer for 2 to 3 minutes and remove from heat. Allow syrup to cool to room temperature. Prick holes in the cooled cake with a toothpick, then slowly saturate the cake with the brandy syrup.

PEAR AND ALMOND FRANGIPANE WITH APRICOT SAUCE

Steps:

• Combine water, 2 1/2 cups sugar, lemon juice and vanilla in large pot. Stir over medium-high heat until sugar dissolves. Add pears. Bring liquid to boil. Reduce heat to medium; simmer until pears are just tender, turning occasionally, about 10 minutes. Cool pears in poaching liquid.
• Stir preserves in small saucepan until melted. Add rum. (Pears and sauce can be made 1 day ahead. Cover separately; chill.)
• Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 10- to 11-inch-diameter quiche dish with about 1 1/2-inch-high sides. Grind nuts in processor. Add 1 3/4 cups sugar, eggs and almond extract. Process until well blended. Pour into dish. Drain pears; arrange atop batter, cut side down and stem end toward center. Bake until tester inserted into cake comes out clean, about 1 hour. Cool on rack. Rewarm apricot sauce over medium-low heat. Serve cake with sauce.