Sweet Almond Cake

Ingredients

Cake

• 1 cup unsalted butter (room temp)
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 tsp almond extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups cake flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 large egg whites (room temp)
• 1 whole egg (room temp)
• 1 1/4 cup buttermilk (room temp)

Buttercream

• 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter (room temp)
• 2 tsp almond extract
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tbsp milk (optional)

Drip

• 1 cup bright white Wilton candy melts
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• Wilton white-white icing color

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350F and grease 3 8-inch round cake pans. Line the bottom of the pans with parchment paper. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. Using a hand or stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar. You want to whip some air into this so let it run for a couple minutes until it turns light and fluffy. Slowly mix in the eggs, scraping down the sides of the bowl about halfway through. Mix in the almond extract. Once that is all combined, alternate adding the dry ingredients and buttermilk. Dry, milk, dry, milk, dry. Mix well until everything just comes together. Divide the batter evenly between your three pans and bake for 25-28 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
2. Let the cakes cool inside their pans for about 15 minutes before removing them. Keep the parchment paper on and allow them to cool completely on a cooling rack. I like to make my cakes the day before so that they can chill overnight in the fridge (wrapping each layer in plastic wrap). This makes them nice and sturdy for assembling. If you don’t have that time, you can pop them in the fridge for an hour or so before building your cake.
3. To make the buttercream, cream together the room temperature butter and powdered sugar, one cup at a time. Add the almond extract about halfway through adding in the powdered sugar. If you think your buttercream is too thick, you can mix in one tablespoon of milk at a time until you reach the consistency you like. I added just one tablespoon to mine.
4. To assemble, layer your cake and buttercream but make sure that the top layer of cake is flipped upside down. This will help get that nice sharp edge all around the top. I went for a naked cake look which did not require a crumb coat. If you’d like to have full-coverage, apply a very thin layer of buttercream to the entire outside of the cake and pop in the fridge for about 15 minutes before spreading on your thick layer. Place the frosted cake in the fridge while you make our cake drip.
5. In a microwave safe bowl, add in your candy melts and heavy cream. Microwave for 1 minute and stir. If it’s not completely melted at that point, you can microwave for another 30 seconds. When mixing it, it may look like it will never come together but it will, I promise! Just keep mixing. The secret to getting a bright white drip is the Wilton white-white icing color. I mixed in around 15-20 drops to get the opacity I wanted. At this point, the drip mix will be pretty thin so let it sit in the fridge for about 10 minutes to thicken up a bit. When it’s ready, it should have some slight resistance when running your spoon through it but it will still disappear into itself.
6. Pour the drip into the center of the chilled cake. Leave about 1/2 inch around the edge of the cake and use an off-set spatula or spoon to guide it to the edges of the cake. If it’s not dripping down as far as you’d like, quickly add a little more in the spots you’d like it to drip down. Add your cake topper, sprinkles, or whatever decor you’d like to this cake. You can serve it cold or at room temp – it tastes great either way!

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