Recipe 8: Toscatårta or Swedish almond cake

As Giuliana Rancic would say (because I’m such a big fan of hers)…“totally amazeballs!”. That’s exactly how I would describe my latest culinary adventure which was Toscatårta or Swedish almond cake. Better still (and you already know what a hard marker Dear Husband is!), he described the cake as “possibly the nicest cake I’ve ever had!”. You know this cake is good when Dear Husband gives it that verdict – a perfect 10 out of 10. Here’s how I made it…

I used my electric food processor to whisk the eggs and sugar for 7 minutes. I then sifted in plain flour before folding in baking powder, vanilla extract and melted butter. I poured the mixture into a spring-form cake tin and baked in the oven for 35 minutes. At the 30-minute mark, I made the topping for the cake which consisted of melted butter, flaked almonds, caster sugar, plain flour, double cream and vanilla extract. I just let everything boil for a minute. It was then time to take the cake out of the oven and so I poured the topping over the cake and returned it to the oven for another 10-15 minutes. Once ready, I let the cake sit in its tin for at least 10 minutes before transferring it to a plate. I served it slightly warm and with double cream.

The verdict…

Well, you know the verdict but, honestly, this cake was absolutely gorgeous. I know I absolutely adore hazelnuts and almonds so maybe I’m biased about this recipe but Dear Husband isn’t as big of a fan of the same which made his verdict all the more surprising.

Overall, this cake is without doubt one of the easiest cakes I have ever made. One thing I would say is that when you are making this topping, make sure you stick to the one-minute boil as it is extremely easy to burn the mixture – I know as I had a near miss! The cake was relatively quick to make and one of the great things about it was that I didn’t have to wait for it to completely cool to ice which is often the case with a cake recipe.

I have never witnessed such interest in our house over a cake before. I have this great glass dome plate for cakes by Nigella Lawson which I bought at least 6 years ago so for all of three days, the cake took pride of place in the middle of the kitchen table. Anyone who crossed the back door had to have a piece because, as you know, no one is allowed to leave my house without being accosted for their opinion on my latest culinary effort and this cake was no exception and the verdicts were definitely good ones!

So, in essence (pardon the pun!), from now until forever more, this cake will be within the top three favourite cakes of mine…and Dear Husband’s for that matter. That is no easy feat; therefore, I highly recommend you try this one. You won’t regret it!