Kathi would rather spend her kitchen time baking than cooking, and it shows in this one. She uses as many natural ingredients as she can — real butter, whole milk, raw sugar — and her almond cake never sticks to the pan.
The secret is a little melted coconut oil rubbed on the pan before baking. No sprays for her.
Ingredients
- 1 cup raw sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons pure almond extract
- 1/4 cup whole milk
- 2 cups sifted flour
- ½ tsp baking powder
- Pinch of sea salt
- 1 stick melted butter
Method
- Rub an almond cake pan with a blend of melted coconut oil and butter.
- Beat the sugar, eggs, almond extract and milk together in a bowl.
- Add the flour, baking powder and salt, and mix well.
- Add the melted butter and mix well.
- Bake at 350°F for 40 to 50 minutes. The edges must be golden brown.
- Cool in the pan before removing — the cake will break if you turn it out too soon.
- Sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar.
Coconut oil instead of spray
This is the difference between Kathi’s version and every other almond cake recipe here. Cooking spray leaves a residue that builds up in the flutes of the pan over time and eventually makes things stick worse, not better. Coconut oil blended with butter goes on thinner, browns rather than burns, and releases cleanly. If your almond cakes have started sticking in a pan that used to be fine, this is usually why.
The other two
Three almond cakes in the family, all different. Grammy Greta’s is the standard everyone measured against, and Mrs. Olson’s is the one that arrived when the wind turned cold.