French Almond Cake

We had the great pleasure of being invited to partake in the inauguration of our neighbors Laurie and Paul’s deep fat turkey fryer.  The turkey itself as well as all of the food that everyone brought was great.

Our contribution was a French almond cake whose base comes from a Jacque Pépin recipe.  What makes the cake itself so good is our use of French almond paste in the recipe.  Also nice about this recipe is that it is made in a food processor.

We make this cake in a pan that has an indention in the bottom (top when you turn it over) that can be filled with many different types of fillings such as pastry cream or as in this version ganache.  But I am jumping ahead….

A nicely baked cake, browned on the outside and soft and moist on the inside.

First, to add to the existing almondness (I’m not sure that is a real word) the cake is further moistened in a soaking syrup made with Disaronno Originale, an Italian almond liqueur.

Next, the indentation is filled in with ganache which is made with Valrhona Manjari 64% dark chocolate.  A video of making ganache is in an earlier blog posting.

Once the ganache has set, the top is decorated with cut strawberries.

Finally, the cake is glazed with a neural clear gel which not only keeps the fruit fresh but also gives it a nice shine.

Given the number of expected guests, we made two cakes to be sure that there would be seconds if requested.  Needless to say we all had a great time eating appetizers, turkey, sides, and dessert.