Springtime Means Teatime– Pinkies Up!

Pin It The days are getting longer, and the bite is slowly retreating from the air.  Spring is finally starting to peek around the corner, and you know what that means...

Tea Parties!  Pretty, girly, dainty tea parties.  Love it.  And this almond cake is the perfect accompaniment.

It starts with some ground almonds, sugar, and some quick n' easy late-night baking...

Then there's a glaze involved (try to ignore the lumps– I suck at glazes):

And then some slivered, toasted almonds to cover the ugly glaze, because god forbid your dainty tea cake is ugly!

 And then, the next morning before rushing off to work, you take much better pictures of your beautiful, fragrant, almondy tea cake:

The result of all this is a delicious, sweet-but-light, extremely girly loaf.  Not for the faint-of-heart, almond-wise, though; one of my work friends doesn't like almonds (I know, but we have to allow people their personal tastes), and all it took was a whiff of this cake and she wasn't remotely interested.  Hey, that just left more for the rest of us!

Of course, you can have this cake for brunch or dessert or pretty much any time of day– it's not just for teatime.  But the almondy sweetness does go perfectly with a nice cuppa.  Bottom line: it's easy and delicious and you should make it!

Almond Tea Cake:

     adapted from Allrecipes

Preheat oven to 350F/175C.  Grease a 9x5 loaf pan (I finally have one that's the right size!).

In a large bowl, cream until fluffy:

     1/2 c (113g) butter

     1 c sugar

Add, one at a time:

     2 eggs

Mix well, then add:

     1 tsp vanilla extract

     1 tsp almond extract

In a separate bowl, whisk together:

     1/3 c ground almonds

     1 1/4 c flour

     1 tsp baking powder

     1/4 tsp  salt

Add to wet ingredients, alternating with:

     1/2 c milk

Bake in prepared pan for 30-50 minutes, until a tester comes out clean.  Cool ten minutes, then turn out onto a rack to let cool completely.

To glaze, combine:

     3/4 c powdered sugar

     2-3 Tbsp milk

     drop of almond extract

Pour over cooled cake, then sprinkle with toasted almonds.  Serve with tea and dainty napkins– pinkies up!