Almond Coffee Cake

babe, wake up, it's time for your new favorite breakfast treat!

I need to make a confession. If it changes how you look at me, I’ll understand. Take a seat, brace yourself, it’ll be like ripping off a band-aid.

I hate coffee. So, so much.

Anyone left? Nobody setting fires? Okay, let me explain.

I understand there is a rich history attached to coffee, many ways to prepare it, flavors, terroir, ect. But I have never understood the obsession. It’s bitter, way too fragrant, (to the point that if I sit in a coffee shop for too long I get a brutal headache) and for it to be palatable I have to add so many syrups and sugars. By that point I’m basically drinking a milkshake. That just isn’t what I want for breakfast.

Call me uncultured, tell me I have an underdeveloped pallet, I have heard it all! But given the choice between a hot cup of coffee, or a chai? With its warm, aromatic spices, creamy and dreamy served hot or over ice, the choice is clear.

Ironically, that love for chai was how this recipe started, but the end result is much more of a highlight on the delicate flavors of almond in the best way possible.

The Goal

• Balanced butter, almond, and spice flavors

• Pay homage to classic diner coffee cakes from my childhood

• Good fresh, great the morning after

The Breakdown

When I picture my dream coffee cake I want it warm, buttery, and it has to have a strong spice flavor. But mostly the butter. There’s a diner in my hometown called Carolyn’s Cafe that notoriously serves their coffee cakes hot with a scoop of butter on top. By the time it reaches the table the butter has begun to melt into waterfalls of decadence cascading down the sides of the cake, creating an addictive combination of sweet, tender, and nostalgic.

In the moment, it’s perfection. With a few years behind me and reflecting back on it, there’s only a couple things I would adjust. I would love a little bit of crunch to break up the soft, butter soaked cake, and just a bit more salt to balance out the other flavors.

To start, I knew I wanted to use butter throughout the cake as my main fat source. I usually LOVE baking with oil, the liquid fat makes for the quickest stir together cakes and has a super tender crumb. But my favorite things about oil are actually the reasons they wouldn’t benefit in this bake. It’s neutral flavor is an empty space that deserves to hold the rich flavor of butter instead. Not to mention the cosmology of this cake. We want soft and tender when warmed. While oil cakes are incredibly moist at room temperature, I personally feel like oil cakes can become too mushy when served hot.

My biggest back and forth during development was getting the flavors balanced. While this recipe was originally meant to be a “Chai Almond Coffee Cake” my early tests were so spice forward (as they should be) I couldn’t get the almond flavor to come through at all. In one of my earliest test I even used a full teaspoon of extract just to get any almond flavor to fight its way past the spices.

Too much, way too much. Something needed to change.

I set the chai blend to the side, and decided to keep the spices simpler. Don’t worry, you’ll see this spice blend again soon, just in a place where it can truly be the star. Lets let almond have it’s time to shine on it’s own. By cutting those spices back I could really lighten the amount of extract needed to make the almond flavor pop. To the point now I’m on the fence on if it really should be 1/4 teaspoon, or 1/2 teaspoon of extract in the final recipe.

So I leave it to you. If you have a physical reaction to almond extract, keep it at 1/4 teaspoon. The almond flour and sliced almonds on top give you all the nutty deliciousness you really need. If you want a little more of that almond punch, bump it up to 1/2 teaspoon. Personally, I like the 1/2 teaspoon, but viewers discretion and all that hub bub.

The Recipe

Almond Coffee Cake

Yield: 1(9-inch) cake

Ingredients

For the crumble:

○ ½ cup (110g) dark brown sugar

○ 1 teaspoon cinnamon

○ ½ teaspoon cardamom

○ ¾ cup (94g) all-purpose flour

○ 1/3 cup (76g) unsalted butter, room temperature and cubed

○ 1/3 cup (35g) sliced almonds

For the cake:

○ 2/3 cup (150g) unsalted butter, softened

○ 1 cup (220g) dark brown sugar

○ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

○ ¼ teaspoon almond extract

○ 2 large eggs, room temperature

○ 1 ¾ cups (219g) all-purpose flour

○ ½ cup (48g) almond flour

○ 2 teaspoons baking powder

○ 1 teaspoon kosher salt

○ 1 cup (240g) sour cream

○ Confectionery sugar, for dusting

Method:

1. For the crumble: In a medium bowl, stir together the brown sugar, cinnamon, and cardamom. Spoon 3 tablespoons of the spiced sugar mixture into a separate container and set aside at room temperature until cake assembly.

2. Add the flour to the remaining spiced sugar mixture and stir until combined. Toss the butter in the flour mixture until evenly coated. Using your fingertips, press the butter into the flour mixture until no visible pieces of butter remain. The mixture should easily hold together when squeezed. Add the almonds and gently stir into the mixture to keep them from breaking. Cover and refrigerate until cake assembly.

3. For the cake: Preheat the oven to 350F. Spray a 9-inch springform pan with baking spray with flour. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and brown sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the extracts and eggs, one at a time, beating until fully combined after each addition. Stop to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to make sure everything is fully combined.

4. In a medium bowl, stir together the flours, baking powder, and salt. Add roughly 1/3 of the flour mixture to your butter and mix on low speed until the flour has just disappeared. Add half of the sour cream, beating just until combined. Add the remaining flour in two additions, alternating with the remaining sour cream. Stop to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to make sure everything is fully combined.

5. Spread about half of the batter into the prepared pan, using an offset spatula to smooth into an even layer. Sprinkle the 3 tablespoons of reserved spiced sugar in a single layer on top of the batter. Spread the remaining batter on top, then scatter the crumble to cover the entire surface.

6. Bake until the top is golden in color, a wooden pick inserted into the center comes out clean, and an instant read thermometer registers 200F. Let the cake cool completely on a wire rack before removing from the pan. Dust the top with powdered sugar just before serving, if desired. Store in an airtight container, at room temperature, for up to 3 days.

*I personally LOVE this cake the day after baking, slightly warmed in the microwave, with a pad of butter and flakey sea salt.