valentine's day is not for sexy lingerie, it is for cake!
because surely, it might be contradictory to have both?
this pink almond cake is a family tradition,
and traditionally stoopie eats half of the almond paste before
it goes into the cake batter, but this year i made it and
decorated it before it got to stoopie, so this one was extra tasty :-)
the key is to acquire as much pink and red shit that you can find.
not to h8 on myself, but screw this, i love red 40.
cake ingredients:
1 tablespoon butter (for pan)
8 oz almond paste
6 eggs - separated
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
a pinch of salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup flour {you can substitute this for 1/2 cup of almond flour,
for those gfgfs and gfbfs {gluten-free girlfriends and gluten-free boyfriends}}
topping ingredients:
1 1/2 cups whipping cream
1/2 cup powdered sugar {i use a little less, as i don't want it too sweet}
a very generous splash of amaretto
chocolate hearts, candy hearts, gummy hearts, almond paste, red jimmies...
clues:
preheat oven to 350. butter a round pan. beat almond paste and egg yolks really well. mix in vanilla and almond extract. beat egg whites and salt in another bowl until stiff peaks form, add sugar one tablespoon at a time. fold 1/3 of egg whites into almond paste mixture. gently fold in remaining whites. combine baking powder and flour in another bowl...gently fold into mixture 2 tablespoons at a time, being careful not to deflate whites. pour into pan, bake until top is lightly browned and a knife inserted into center comes out clean {about 30 minutes}.
for topping, whip up the cream. blend in powdered sugar. blend in amaretto {drink some amaretto}. then unleash your inner ace of cake and have at it!
for the cake's hat, i simply kneaded food coloring into almond paste
and then cut out a nice round disk.
then i realized that one chocolate heart is nary enough...
so i added an entire chocolate base and three more hearts.
this isn't usually part of the tradition... but i was compelled.
from bottom to top:
chocolate + whipped cream + cake + almond paste + chocolate
and, ok, i should have just restrained myself and left it like this because it almost looks rather sophisticated, like a 22-year-old made it, no?
but there were red jimmies and gummy hearts just begging to be used,
so it turned into a molly-circa-1997 creation.
and miraculously, it survived the L train yesterday
so that i could share it with stoopie and friends!!
happy valentine's day, everyone!
-yeh!!!!
