Almond Poppy Seed Spice Cake
Recipe by Bake at 350 (slightly modified)
Love almond poppy seed muffins? Love buttercream frosting? Wish you could eat them in cake form? Need to feed a crowd? Stop whatever you’re doing and make this recipe!
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 30-40 min
Total time: about an hour
Yield: 12-20 slices
Ingredients
- 1 & 1/2 cupsunbleached all purpose flour
- 1 & 1/2 cupswhite whole wheat flour
- 1 tbspbaking powder
- 1/4 cupcornstarch
- 1 heaping tspground nutmeg
- 1 heaping tspcinnamon
- 6egg whites, room temperature
- 6egg yolks, room temperature
- 1/2 tspcream of tartar
- 1 cupsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 cupssugar
- 1/2 cuphoney
- 2 cupsmilk, room temperature
- 2 tbspvinegar
- 1 tbspalmond extract
- 1/2 cuppoppy seeds
Cooking Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease three 9″ round cake pans with shortening, use the pans as a pattern to cut round pieces of parchment paper to place in the bottom of each (the shortening will act like an adhesive to keep it there), and sprinkle the inside of each pan lightly with flour.
- Add flours, baking powder, cornstarch, nutmeg, and cinnamon to a sifter and sift into a large bowl.
- Using the whisk attachment on a stand mixer, whip egg whites and cream of tartar on high until soft peaks form. Set aside.
- In another large bowl, add butter, sugar, and honey. Cream together using the paddle attachment on a stand mixer until light and fluffy.
- Setting mixer to low speed, add egg yolks one at a time, beating briefly after each addition. Continually scrape the inside of the bowl while beating to ensure mixture is smooth and creamy.
- Combine milk, vinegar, and almond extract in a medium bowl.
- Add dry mixture to butter mixture in three separate additions, alternating with the milk mixture. Between additions, mix lightly until just combined. Scrape inside of bowl as necessary.
- Fold in poppy seeds all at once, and then egg whites in three separate additions. You may need to whip the egg whites briefly again if they have begun to separate.
- Fold batter evenly into pans and place in oven. Bake for 30 minutes, then check for doneness. Bake up to an additional 10 minutes if necessary, until a toothpick in the center comes out relatively clean, the top is springy, and the edges are lightly browned.
- Cool in pans for 10 minutes, then transfer to wire racks. When cakes are still warm to the touch, but cool enough to handle, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, then again in foil, and place in freezer overnight.
- When ready to frost (recipes follows), remove from freezer and allow to defrost for several hours (original post recommends defrosting in refrigerator – I neglected to use the plastic wrap, so I pulled the foil off of mine immediately the following morning and defrosted in a cake dome).
Almond Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
- 1 & 1/2 cupssalted butter, room temperature
- 7 1/2 cupspowdered sugar
- 1 tbspvanilla extract
- 1 tbspalmond extract
- 6 tbsphalf & half (plus additional as necessary)
- 1-2 tbsppoppy seeds, for topping
Cooking Directions
- Cream butter and powdered sugar together using the paddle attachment on a stand mixer on high speed until it forms a thick paste.
- Beat in vanilla and almond extract, followed by half and half. Beat until fully combined, adding additional half and half one tablespoon at a time as needed to achieve a fluffy consistency. Beat until all lumps are gone and frosting is fluffy.
- Place first layer of cake on frosting surface. Spread a heaping half cup of frosting on top. Add second layer and repeat. Add third layer and frost top and sides generously.
- Sprinkle poppy seeds on top.
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