Homemade almond cake. Traditional and delicious Portuguese recipe

For 4 € 1.8 /pers. 284 kcal/100g

How to make Portuguese almond cake .

Don’t let the appearance of this Portuguese almond cake fool you. You may think it’s crude, but we assure you that it is delicious. Those of you who are almond lovers will especially like it . One of our favorites along with the Santiago cake and the Allariz cake or almendrados , two of the great Galician cakes.

Behind the simplicity of appearance is the simplicity of preparation , which makes it a perfect cake for beginners. Very easy to make, it is a simple butter cake flavored with lemon zest and a caramelized almond topping. Crispy on the surface and soft inside . Sublime.

As we have already said, this recipe is suitable for any level of baking skill , because all you need is good utensils, good ingredients and following our instructions. In Portugal they use almond sticks for the topping, but we have used whole raw almonds that we had at home to take advantage of and it turned out very nice. You can also use laminated almonds.

Preparation of Portuguese almond cake

1. We divide the butter into two halves and also the sugar. We mix in a large container. We reserve half of the butter and sugar for later, with them we will make the almond topping for the cake.
2. We beat the butter and sugar that we have mixed using electric whisks or a food processor. We don’t want the mixture to whiten, but it has to be homogeneous. We zest the lemon and add the zest to the previous mixture. Next we add the eggs and beat again.
3. We sift the flour and baking powder. We add the mixture of liquid ingredients to the container, that is, the eggs, lemon zest, butter and sugar.
4. We mix gently, although the famous enveloping movements are not necessary in this case. We can use a mixer or a robot.
5. We grease a 16 cm mold and line it with greaseproof paper, both the base and the walls. We can use a removable base mold and save this step. We pour the prepared mixture and smooth the surface with a spatula.

Baking and final presentation of the Portuguese almond cake

1. We put the mold in the oven, preheated to 175 ºC with heat up and down, and cook for about 14-15 minutes. While the cake is baking, prepare the almond topping.
2. Chop the almonds with a knife into irregular and rough pieces. We put the reserved butter and sugar in a saucepan along with the milk. Heat until the sugar dissolves and add the chopped almonds. We mix and reserve warm.
3. When the cake has risen after 15 minutes, we take it out of the oven and spread the almond mixture on top, covering the entire surface. Return the mold to the oven and cook again for another 15 minutes or until the topping is toasted.
4. Remove from the oven and let cool completely before unmolding and, of course, serving.

Follow this Portuguese almond cake recipe step by step in the album. Don’t miss any details so that it turns out perfect.

Tips for a perfect almond cake

• It is important to have a non-stick mold because the almond coating caramelizes in the oven and can stick to the walls. In that case, a non-stick mold is easier to unmold.
• To achieve this without destroying the cake, simply insert a blunt knife to remove the cake before lifting the base to remove the walls.
• The almond must be raw and you can use flaked almonds or sticks. In fact, this is very practical and saves us the step of chopping the almond.
• The cake does not have to be fully cooked when we cover it with the almond and caramel mixture. It should look white. It will finish cooking in the oven at the same time as the topping.