Mareena's Recipe Collections

I have enormous respect for people who can decorate their cake with Icing. More so, after giving a shot at it myself. One has to have a steady hand as well as patience. I must confess, patience was not my forte earlier. But now slowly I am getting into the groove. I decided to make Eggless Almond Cake, which is yet another favourite of ours, eversince I made it. The Almond cake recipe was taken from Anu’s blog,  Divine Taste. Anu has used Buttercream Icing but I opted to do the decoration with Whipped cream for fear of buttercream getting greasy during winters.  This was probably my third attempt at icing and I was desperate to succeed this time. To tell you the truth, I was quite pleased with the result. Even though I have a long way to go, this definitely gave me the boost.  Whoever tasted it loved it. All the more reason for me to smile…

Eggless Almond Cake
Source: Divine Taste

Ingredients
Flour- 1-1/4 cups
Almonds- 1/3 cup (finely grind them)
Sweetened condensed milk- 1 tin (400 gms)
Butter, melted- 1/2 cup
Water- 3/4 cup
Baking powder- 2 teaspoons 
Baking soda- 1 teaspoon 
Almond extract- 1 teaspoon 
Vanilla extract- 1 teaspoon

For the soaking syrup

Water- 1 cup 
Sugar- 2 tablespoons 

Method

Preheat the oven to 150C. Sieve the flour, baking soda and baking powder. Stir in the powdered almonds into the flour mixture.
In a large bowl assemble the melted butter, condensed milk, water, almond and vanilla extracts and  beat until well mixed. Add half the flour mixture and beat again. Put in the remaining flour mixture and beat until you get a smooth batter without lumps. Don’t over beat the batter as this would interfere with getting a soft cake.
Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for an hour or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes clean. Keep the cake on a wire rack for cooling.

To make the soaking syrup

In a small saucepan, place the water and the sugar and bring to a boil over a medium flame. Allow it to cool.

Whipped Cream Icing 

Ingredients
Fresh Cream- 1 cup (I used 200 gms pack of Amul Cream)
Powdered sugar- 1/4 cup
Vanilla Essence- 1 teaspoon
Almond Essence- 2 drops 

Method

Chill the bowl and beaters in the freezer for an hour before whipping the cream. Take the chilled bowl and  keep the bowl preferably in a container filled with Ice. This is to keep the temperature low. Pour the cream into the chilled bowl and beat on low speed till thick. Once the cream thickens, add the sugar and essence and beat on high speed till stiff peaks are formed. Cover with a plastic wrap and refrigerate till use.

Click here for Stabilized Whipped Cream Icing.

Assembling the cake

Transfer the whipped cream into a piping bag with the nozzle of your choice.
Horizontally slice the cake into two halves. Pour the sugar syrup on both slices. Make sure you don’t drench the slices as it may be difficult to lift up. Place one slice as a base on the tray or serving dish. Pipe the cream onto the slice leaving 1/2″ on the edges. Spread evenly with a spatula. Place the next slice on top and cover the whole cake with the remaining cream.

Let you imagination run wild…. Decorate with chopped or slivered or whole almonds.. After all it’s Almond cake… Chill before serving…Enjoy!!!