Butter Almond Tea Cakes

 

 Most of the goodies that I bake are recipes I have been wanting to try that are in my ever growing list of recipes  and I mostly make them and share with my hubby's co-workers so I don't end up eating more than my share. Once in a while I take requests from friends.  A good friend of mine's husband was telling me about a local restaurant that had these AMAZING almond tea cakes at the brunch they went there for a while ago. And he wanted ME to make them for him. So I first called the restaurant thinking maybe, just maybe they would share the recipe or maybe give me a hint at what they are. I left a message and a manager was nice enough to call me back and tell me that the pastry chef would get back to me with the recipe. I can tell you I am glad I didn't  hold my breath. I had a feeling I wouldn't hear back. But it never hurts to try. 

So I was flipping through recipes in one of my cupcake books after looking online and not really seeing anything that he had described to me and I found the Butter Almond Tea Cake recipe in my book, Cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans. I am not sure if these were exactly what he was wanting but I thought they came out pretty dang good and all I can say is mini cupcakes are dangerous. You can eat them like popcorn. I mean shove them in by the handful. Well. Almost. Maybe in the privacy of your own home.

 First I toasted up some sliced almonds. I toasted a bunch since I sort of carelessly poured them into my pan and a bunch broke. They're very fragile.

 I really wanted to bump up the almondness ( yes that is a word. I say so) so I subbed a little of the all purpose flour with almond flour. All I had was almond meal so I put some in the trusty magic bullet blender and ground it up to a more flour like consistency. Don't grind too long or you end up with almond butter. Mmmm almond butter..

 Butter and almond paste mixing together. Almond paste comes in tubes or cans. Make sure you get almond paste NOT marzipan. Marzipan is much sweeter.

 There is just something pretty about cake batter plus t with the almond paste and extract made it smell so good.

 I have two mini muffin pan that bakes 24 cupcakes each so I was able to bake the entire batch at one time

 At first I was a little bummed they came out so flat but then realized that since they were getting just a swipe of glaze that flat would work better

 Wheeeeeee!!   I dumped them out because my oven mitt is a little thin in one area and it burnt my hand so I spazzed and almost dropped the muffin pan.

 I experimented a little with glazing some while hot and some while cool. I decided I liked the look of them glazed while cool a little better because the glaze sort of disappeared on the ones that were iced warm

 Aren't they cute?  They ended up being a very fragile cupcake, the crumb wasn't very dense, and they stuck to the wrappers. I think next time I will try a different recipe and look for a denser cake. Almost like a pound cake texture. These tasted great though and were liked by the friend that requested them

Butter Almond Tea Cakes

Adapted from cupcakes! By Elinor Klivans

 

Tea Cake Ingredients:

1 cup flour

¼ cup almond flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup sugar, plus

1 tablespoon sugar

3 1/2 ounces almond paste, at room temperature

2 large eggs at room temp

1 tsp almond extract

1/2 cup buttermilk at room temp

Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1 1/2-2 1/2 tablespoons milk

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Topping

Almond slices lightly toasted

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 325. Line 48 mini muffin cups with non-stick spray OR paper mini cupcake papers
2.  Sift the flour, almond flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter, sugar and almond paste until smoothly blended, about 1 minute.
4.  Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until each is blended into the batter.
5.  Add the almond extract and beat for 2 minutes or until the batter is smooth.
6.  On low speed, add the flour in 3 additions and the buttermilk in 2 additions, beginning and ending with the flour and mixing just until the flour is incorporated and the batter looks smooth.
7. Fill each cup with a slightly rounded tablespoon of batter. Bake just until the tops feel firm and a toothpick comes out clean, about 15 minutes. Cool in pans for 5 minutes.
8. Remove from pans and cool on a wire rack.
9. 9To make the glaze, in a small bowl, whisk the powdered sugar, melted butter, 1 1/2 tablespoons milk and almond extract until smooth. Add up to 1 tablespoon more milk if needed for the proper consistency.
10.  If spread on warm cakes, the glaze will melt and become shiny. If spread on cooled cupcakes, the glaze will be white and opaque. The glaze will become firm as it sets.
11. Top each mini cupcake with one or two of the toasted sliced almonds.