No-Fly Lemon-Amaretto Cake

I want to thank everyone for being supportive of my blog. It's fun to write and I appreciate all the comments - and all of the suggestions of what to cook next. Today's recipe was suggested by my friend Mike. He says he has been making this Lemon-Amaretto Cake since he was about 10 years old, minus the alcohol in his formative years.

I actually made this cake back in December, divided into 2 loaf pans, and took them to Finland with me as hostess gifts for the families that I was visiting. You can see slices of the cake on the table (left) during a morning visit with the extended family. (The other photos are from the farm I stayed at during Christmas). Although the cake was well received with morning coffee and was the perfect post-sauna (pronounced "s-ow-na") snack, I would estimate that the loaves added about 5 pounds of weight to my carry-on and I was a little worried that I might have some trouble with getting through security. Alcohol drenched pound cake is a perfect terrorist weapon - brick like and perhaps a good vessel for chloroform. Does anyone else spend time thinking about ways to get things passed through TSA? Really, I would like think they make us safer, but if there are terrorists as smart and as creative as I am...well, we should be afraid. I hope this post doesn't put me on the no-fly list.

I had some discussions with Mike about the best way to soak the cake in the Amaretto syrup to get the most absorption. When warm? When cold? My final strategy was to apply the syrup with several applications, applying both when warm and when cool.

Lemon-Amaretto Cake

source: Cooks.com

Ingredients 

Cake

1 1/2 c. sliced almonds

1/2 lb. unsalted butter, softened

2 c. granulated sugar

1 tbsp. finely grated lemon zest

2 c. unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. lemon extract

5 eggs

Syrup 

6 tbsp. granulated sugar

4 tbsp. Amaretto liqueur

3 tbsp. fresh lemon juice

Instructions 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread almonds on a baking sheet and place in oven for 8 to 10 minutes, or until just golden. Remove and set aside.
2. Lightly grease and flour two 5 x 8 loaf pans  Sprinkle 1/2 cup of toasted almonds evenly between the bottoms of the two pans (1/4 cup in each pan). See #4 in the notes section.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter, sugar and lemon zest together until pale yellow and fluffy. Add flour; stir just enough to blend.
4. Add lemon juice and extracts. Stir. Add eggs, one at a time, stirring after each addition.
5. With a rubber spatula, gently fold in all of the remaining toasted almonds.
6. Scrape the batter into the prepared pans and bake until cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about 1 hour and 5 minutes. (After 30 minutes of baking, cover top of cake tightly with aluminum foil).
7. While cake is baking, prepare syrup: In a saucepan, slowly heat the sugar, Amaretto and lemon juice, stirring, until sugar melts. Reserve until ready to use.
8. When the cake is done, remove from oven; with a cake tester or a shish kabob skewer, poke holes all over the top of the cake. Carefully pour or brush on 1/2 of the syrup until it is absorbed into the holes. You may need to make several applications because the entire amount probably won't absorb all at once. Cool cake in the pan on a cake rack for 10 minutes.
9. Gently invert the cake onto another rack and remove from pan. With cake tester, poke holes in the bottom and sides of cake; brush each side with remaining syrup. 
10. You can keep brushing the cake with straight liqueur if you want or put some Amaretto in the bottom of the pan and put the loaf back into the pan for soaking. I think used an additional 1/4 cup of Amaretto, and probably could have used more.
11. Let cake cool completely before placing in gift container, gift-wrapping and taking to your airport's security check.
Serves 12 good size pieces. Per serving (with the syrup) : 481 calories, 24g fat, 130mg cholesterol.

Notes about this recipe: 
1. If you don't have lemon extract, don't worry. You can just use a little more lemon juice or leave it out for a less lemony cake.


2. To apply the syrup, I ended up using the squeeze bottle shown in the photo, and poured liquid directly into the holes I created with the cake tester/skewer. I also tried a pastry brush but had less control of where the syrup went. I think you could also just use a teaspoon to help pour the syrup into the holes.
3. You can also use a single 10-inch nonstick Bundt pan (instead of the 2 loaf pans) and cook for 1 hour and 10 minutes.
4. If I make this recipe again as loaves, I will probably sprinkle the almonds on top instead of the bottom. The idea is to have a decorative top of your cake. With a bundt pan, the top is the bottom, so you should put the almonds on the bottom of the pan before adding the batter. For loaves, the top is the top so the almonds should be sprinkled on top, after the batter is put in the pans.