A Good Humor Crunch Cake Collection is not complete without a Toasted Almond Cake!
Bringing back childhood memories of chasing the ice cream man down the street in the summer
Only to be faced with the most difficult decision ever ~ Which one to chose?
Well today it’s Toasted Almond
The last addition to my Good Humor Ice Cream Bar Cake series!
Almond cake and white pound cake layers with almond and vanilla buttercream too!
Of course the signature crunch coating is the winning touch for all the Good Humor cakes!
That extra cake layer got all toasted up with a handful of almonds for the best crunch coating ever!
Notes for Success:
In the video I mentioned my white cake mistake that turned out to be a true win!
I made a mistake on my math conversion from a one time recipe to double recipe of the white cake
With only half of the baking powder in the recipe. the resulting cake layers were dense and velvety and pound cake like in texture
The recipe below is the correct recipe for white cake!
Re: Almond Cake recipe~ I would recommend grind raw almonds rather than using almond flour the result is much better
Always best to follow weights measure for everything since volume cups will give you a different measure every time
Not to mention different varieties of almonds (sliced vs whole vs slivered) will also result differently
Toasted almonds will give you a nicer flavor in the overall cake
Lightly roast them in a single layer on a sheet pan in a preheated 250°F oven for about 15 minutes
If you think this is just too many recipes for one cake, you can of course omit the white cake layers altogether and just make the almond sponge cake
WATCH THE YOUTUBE VIDEO FOR HOW TO MAKE TOASTED ALMOND CAKE
Toasted Almond Cake
Ingredients
For the White Cake:
- 4 Tbs Vegan Butter 50g
- 4 Tbs Coconut Oil 50g
- ¾ cup Granulated Sugar 150g
- ¼ cup Plant milk 50g
- ¼ cup Water 60ml
- 1 teaspoon Clear Vanilla Extract 5ml
- ¼ teaspoon Almond Extract
- 3 Tbs All Purpose Flour 24g
- 1½ cup Cake Flour 180g
- 2 teaspoon Baking Powder
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- 1 Tbs Cornstarch 8g
- ½ cup Aquafaba 118ml
For the Almond Sponge Cake:
- 1 cup Vegan Butter 226g
- 2 cups Granulated Sugar 400g
- 3 Tbs Golden Flax Meal 24g
- 6 Tbs Hot Water 90ml
- 1½ cups Plant Milk 237ml
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract 5ml
- 1 teaspoon Almond Extract 5ml
- 3 cups All Purpose Flour 375g
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder 6g
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda 6g
- ½ teaspoon Salt 3g
- 1½ cups Raw Unsalted Almonds 186g
For the Almond Buttercream:
- 1 Recipe Buttercream
- ½ cup Almond Paste 140g
- 1 teaspoon Almond Extract 5ml
For the Cake Crunch Coating
- 1 layer of extra cake
- 1 cup raw almonds
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F & grease & parchment line 3-7" cake pans
- For the white cake recipe: Combine the softened vegan butter with the coconut oil & granulated sugar & mix on high speed with the paddle attachment for 3-5 minutes until light & fluffy, be sure to scrape the bottom & sides of the bowl from time to time.
- Combine the plant milk with the water & the extracts ~ set it aside.
- Combine the aquafaba with the cornstarch & whisk together so there are no lumps
- Once the butter mixture is creamed, add the aquafaba/cornstarch to it while mixing on low speed then once it is all incorporated whip on high speed for 5 seconds to emulsify & the mixture will get very silky & smooth
- Meanwhile sift the flour with the salt & baking powder then add 1/3 of that to the creamed mixture while blending on low speed just until combined
- Next add half of the milk mixture in the same manner
- Repeat with another 1/3 of the dry ingredients, then the remaining liquid & last the remaining dry ingredients. (*this is called alternating creaming method)
- Divide the batter evenly amongst your pans & bake immediately in the preheated oven that has been set to 350°F but once you have loaded the pans into the oven, immediately lower the temperature to 325° & bake for approx 25- 30minutes or when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Cool in the pans then turn them out onto a cooling rack to cool completely then wash the pans and re-grease & parchment line for the next cake recipe
- Preheat the oven to 350°F
- Combine the flax meal & hot water together in a small bowl ~set aside to thicken for about 5 minutes.
- Grind the almonds in a food processor or chop as fine as possible by hand ~ set aside
- Combine the plant milk with the extracts and set aside.
- Sift the flour with the salt, baking powder & baking soda
- In a large mixing bowl, cream the vegan butter & sugar on medium to high speed until light & fluffy, this may take 3-5 minutes.
- Add the flax paste to the creamed mixture then whip on high for 5 seconds to emulsify
- Turn the speed back down to low & add 1/3 of the sifted dry ingredients blending just until incorporated then add half of the plant milk mixture in the same manner
- Repeat with another 1/3 of the dry ingredients, the other half of the plant milk then the last of the dry ingredients.
- Add the finely ground almonds & mix well
- Portion the batter into your prepared pans & bake in the preheated 350°F oven for 20 minutes.
- Turn the oven temperature down to 300° & bake for another 15 minutes or when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, no raw cake batter.
- Cool the cakes in the pans until they are cool to the touch, then flip them out onto a wire rack to cool the rest of the way
- Next prepare the buttercream recipe: but first cream the almond paste smooth with the paddle attachment & add the almond extract to that ~transfer this to a bowl and then proceed with the recipe instructions for the buttercream (no need to wash the bowl first) At the last stage of mixing add the creamed almond paste back to the buttercream
- For the Cake Crunch: Using the one extra layer from the almond cake recipe pulse it in a food processor with 1 cup of the raw almonds
- Spread out onto a sheet pan and toast for about 20 minutes at 300°F until browned & crisp
- Build the cake as shown in the video tutorial
Video
Notes
When do we add the vegan yogurt in the almond cake recipe?
Dear Gretchen, you mentioned there is yogurt in the recipe. is it a mistake?
Hi Gretchen,
The recepie I’d great just think that you forgot to put the vinegar and almond extract and have unnecessary vegan yougurt. Also, I didnt want to crumble a full layer as I am using 8 inch pans. Could I just toast almonds and use cake trimmings or would that effect the taste? Thanks!
Hey! Thanks for pointing that out, let me get in here and check out this recipe (sometimes I copy paste from existing recipes) but forget to do minor tweaking! So thanks!
YES to adding whatever trimmings you like best! No need to make extra cake just to crumble!
Hey Gretchen! Could you please let us know if the yogurt listed is supposed to go in the cake? The amount of almond extract for the almond sponge wasn’t listed but was used in the video. Thanks!
Hi Sara, I am realizing that I am not getting notifications for these comments! I just now saw this 3 days later!
I apologize for not including the yogurt in the instructions, I mix this with the plant milk & honestly I have used all plant milk when I did not have yogurt and the results were the same
Thank you for pointing out the almond extract! I have corrected this recipe!
Hi Gretchen,
I am not vegan but would love to make this Toasted Almond Cake using three 9×2 layered cake pans. Can you please give me the recipe ingredients and measurements for making this cake using normal ingredients?
Thank you so much
Hi Lisa, I hope you will make it!! And you can stick to the recipe quantities as listed with no changes for 2-9″ pans instead of the 3-7″ pans that I always use.
As for “normal” ingredients? ~ If you mean cow milk/butter & eggs? I do not create my recipes from preexisting recipes that used animals ingredients. They are formulated specifically from scratch recipes, meaning I cannot simply tell you to convert backwards and use eggs in place of “whatever” since it will throw off the recipe. I would suggest that if you simply cannot live without eggs & dairy (even though these recipes are so amazing you would really be missing out on something great! I hope you will try!) you would then probably have more success just finding & using recipes that are not vegan.
Hi Gretchen,
I’m going to be making my cake tomorrow. I know that the recipe calls for a 1/2 cup of almonds. I purchased a 4oz pack of sliced almonds.. Do I use the entire 4oz bag since a 1/2 cup equals 4oz or do I measure a 1/2cup?
Yes that is correct to follow the weighs measure it’s more accurate
Are you saying to chop the entire 4oz bag?
Do I toast the sliced almonds before chopping?
Hi Lisa, sorry for the late reply it seems I am not getting notifications for these comments so I didn’t know you messaged me.
You can toast the almonds yes ~ toasting always brings out the best flavor in nuts. Just do it very lightly usually 250F for about 15 minutes
As for your other question re: how much almonds to use. I note that using weights measure is always the most consistent since volume cups measure will always give you a different result every time you measure, especially with an ingredient like nuts where you could be using whole VS sliced VS slivered which will all give you a different VOLUME cups measure, but scale is going to give you the exact weight all the time every time.
That said, I just measured 1½ cups of sliced almonds which gave me 186g just under 4 ounces. So if you have a scale, weigh it to 186g if you have cups measure only then use 1½ cups
I also noted that in the video I used a mixture of almond flour (store bought fine ground almonds) and also sliced almonds, which I did not like the almond flour~ it made the cake too dry whereas the raw nuts ground myself was much better
Sorry for the confusion around this recipe I have updated the notes section to make it more clear! Thanks!
hi, for the almond cake, can I use marzipan? maybe substitute 30% butter for marzipan? thanks
Hi there, I would not advise to change this recipe in any way as it was formulated to work out just as written, any changes would require more than just subbing in one ingredient for another.