A tea time classic, this {Pakistani} Bakery Style Almond Cake can be found anywhere across the nation. A light, moist almond cake made with a mixture of flour and ground almonds it has always been one of my favorites.
Although it may look complicated, this is a very quick almond cake recipe. You can have it baked, fresh and ready, just in time for your afternoon cup of tea.
If you've visited my blog before, you probably know that tea time is probably my favorite time of day. If you liked my khalifa-nankhatai-pakistani-cardamom-shortbread-cookies and my coffee-cake-with-buttercream-icing then you will definitely love this as well.
The Recipe
The Almond Topping
You can always distinguish a {Pakistani} Bakery Style Almond Cake with the beautiful circle of halved almonds, surrounded by a sea of crushed ones. When baking this delicious cake, the first step is preparing that very beautiful top layer. Here's how:
- Use a Springform Pan - This is essential because when it's finally time to take the cake out of the tin, the sides gently come away. This makes it very easy to flip the cake upside down and remove the base. The result is a perfectly intact arrangement of almonds that were beautifully laid out.
- Spread a generous amount of butter on the pan - The butter is important as it prevents the almonds from drying out and burning. Infact, it actually helps toast the almonds as the cake bakes, eliminating a step that you would normally perform separately.
- Create a circle of almond halves - Slice your almonds in half and place them face down, first in a large wide circle and then in 2 smaller circles. The smallest circle will almost look like a little flower. As the nuts roast they get a beautiful color and once the cake is flipped, these nuts are it's crowning glory.
- Line the base and sides with crushed nuts - Coarsely crush some nuts and scatter them all along the bottom and sides, in between the circle of halves. Now every slice of your quick and moist almond cake will be chock full o'nuts!
The Batter
Now that your cake pan has been prepped and lined with the almonds it's time to prepare the batter. The mixture comes together quickly and easily and the ingredients are not at all complex. The one thing to make note of is to pour the batter in the cake pan gently so as not to disturb the nuts.
The Sweetener
The key component here is probably the sweetener. To enhance the taste of the almonds, honey is used in this recipe. However, it is a well known fact that honey can caramelize and burn when it is cooked for an extended period of time.
In order to avoid that, this recipe uses part honey and part powdered sugar. Typically, powdered sugar can make a cake a bit dry as it has some cornstarch added to it. But in this instance the water content in the honey helps balance things out.
The Flour and Almonds
Once again, almonds reign supreme in this recipe and the main dry ingredient is part flour and part ground almonds.
The Cottage Cheese
Traditional Pakistani Almond Cake has "khoya" in it. Khoya is a dried evaporated milk solid used in many traditional Pakistani sweets. Milk powder is a close substitute and many recipes for this cake have one or the other in the recipe.
I personally found that the taste and texture of the cake with these ingredients was too dense for my liking. Wanting a lighter, more moist and airy tea cake, I decided to use cottage cheese instead. Ricotta would also be a good substitute and is very similar to cottage cheese, but is higher in calories.
Baking The Cake
This cake is baked at a low temperature so that the almonds don't burn. Depending on your oven, it can take anywhere from 30-40 minutes for it to be completely baked.
Make sure to check after 30 minutes though, as you don't want the cake to be too dry. Due to the nature of all of the ingredients you must find that sweet spot between perfectly done and overdone.
Make sure you cool the cake completely before removing it from the cake pan. Slice and serve! While you're enjoying your delicious cake take a quick picture to tag and share on social media! Last of all, please don't leave without rating and commenting below!
Pakistani Bakery Style Almond Cake
Equipment
- 8 ½ inch Spring Form Baking Tin
Ingredients
The Almond Topping
- 2 tbsp butter
- 20 sliced almonds
- ½ cup crushed almonds
The Cake
- 6 tbsp butter
- 10 tbsp powdered sugar (SEE NOTES)
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 2 tbsp honey (SEE NOTES)
- 1 cup flour
- ½ cup crushed almonds (SEE NOTES)
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- 3 eggs
- ½ cup cottage cheese (SEE NOTES)
Instructions
The Almond Topping
- Preheat the oven to 325° F
- Generously spread the 2 tbsp butter in the baking tin.
- Place the 20 sliced almonds in a circular design on the bottom of the baking tin.
- Spread the ½ cup of crushed almonds on the base and sides of the baking tin.
The Cake
- Cream the butter and the sugar.
- Add the vanilla essence and the honey and mix well.
- Mix all of the dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
- Beat the eggs in a bowl.
- Alternate adding in the dry ingredients and eggs to the creamed butter and sugar, starting with an egg and ending with the flour.
- Add in the cottage cheese and mix well.
- Pour carefully in the cake tin lined with the almonds, taking care not to unsettle the nuts (SEE NOTES)
- Bake for 35-45 minutes, until a cake tester inserted comes out clean.
- Cool well, open the spring form pan and invert the cake so that the almonds you lined the tin with can be seen on top.
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