Almond Cake (A Scratch Recipe)

We are so happy to share our moist Almond Cake with Almond Cream Cheese Frosting recipe with you!

It is a light, tender, and delicious cake with just the right amount of almond flavor. 

How to Make an Almond Cake

This homemade almond cake comes together in no time. It is similar to our popular vanilla buttermilk cake recipe but it is enhanced with almond flavor that is achieved with almond extract as well as with finely chopped almonds.

It is a soft, moist cake with a tender crumb and fluffy texture. You will love it!

*You can find the full, printable cake recipe below, but here is a quick rundown of our steps!

Preparing the Cake Pans

Grease and flour three 8 inch round cake pans and add a circle of parchment paper to the bottom of each prepared pan. Sprinkle the finely chopped almonds into the prepared pans before adding the cake batter.

This gives us a nice boost of almond flavor without changing the soft texture of the cake. 

Preparing the Cake Batter

This recipe uses the traditional creaming method of mixing, in addition to cake flour, giving us a light, tender, and fluffy cake. 

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Whisk the Dry Ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda for 30 seconds to combine. Set aside.
• Combine the Wet Ingredients Next, in another bowl, add the buttermilk, vegetable oil and almond extract. Set aside.
• Creaming Butter & Sugar, Add Eggs In the bowl of a stand mixer (fitted with a paddle attachment) or electric hand mixer, add the unsalted butter and mix at medium speed until smooth. Slowly add the sugar and continue mixing on medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes until lightened in color and fluffy.
• Next, add the room temperature eggs one at a time mixing until the yellow of the yolk is blended.
• Add Dry and Wet Ingredients Alternately With the electric mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients (We like to do three additions of dry ingredients and two of liquid). After the last addition, mix just until blended.
• Adding to Pans Divide the cake batter into the prepared cake pans which have been sprinkled with finely chopped almonds. 
• Bake at 350 Degrees for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just few crumbs attached. Baking times can vary and so make sure to keep an eye on it during the final minutes.
• Cooling: Allow the cake layers to cool in their pans for 10 minutes on a wire rack before turning out. 

Almond Cream Cheese Frosting

Our Almond Cream Cheese Recipe is based on a classic cream cheese frosting that we have used for years, only we've replaced the vanilla extract in the recipe with almond extract.

The resulting frosting is silky smooth and SO good. It pairs perfectly with our almond cake.

Alternative to Cream Cheese Frosting

Cream Cheese frosting does require refrigeration up until a couple hours of serving and so if you would rather use a buttercream frosting, you can add almond extract to our Classic Vanilla Buttercream recipe (or your buttercream recipe of choice)!

Decorating the Cake

• To decorate this scratch Almond Cake, I placed the first cooled cake layer on the cake pedestal.
• Next, I spread the layer with almond cream cheese frosting and topped with the next almond cake layer. Fill once again and top with the final layer of almond cake.
• Next, I like to fill in any gaps between the cake layers with frosting.  (I do this with a piping bag with the tip snipped away..or if you are using a star 21 piping tip for your borders as I did, you can use it for this step also.)

Texturing the Frosting

Next, apply the final layer of frosting. I first smoothed the sides of the cake with my bench scraper (you can use a spatula for this also) and then went back in with a small offset spatula for texturing. 

I love this delicious recipe! We hope that you enjoy it too.

FAQs

More Almond Cake Recipes to Try

Here are a few more Almond Recipes that belong on your must-bake list. Some of our favorites are Almond Coconut Cake, White Almond Sour Cream Cake, Lemon Almond Cake and Almond Cream Cake!

If you are in need of cupcakes, we have a great recipe for homemade Almond Cupcakes with almond whipped cream cheese frosting as well! For a delicious cake mix recipe, check our delicious Almond Rum Cake!

*Make sure to check out our roundup of favorite Cakes from Scratch too! 

Enjoy the Cake Recipe!

Thanks so much for stopping by our site today.

Whether you need a birthday party cake, bridal shower cake, baby shower cake, or just because, this elegant cake is sure to please!

Almond Cake (A Scratch Recipe)

BY Melissa and Bebe

This delicious recipe consists of moist almond cake layers with a flavorful almond cream cheese frosting!

Prep Time: 30 minutes mins

Cook Time: 25 minutes mins

Course: Cakes and Cupcakes

Servings: 15 servings

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Ingredients

• ▢ ½ cup (48g) sliced almonds
• ▢ 1 ½ sticks (170g) unsalted butter, softened. (holds it shape but dents when pressed)
• ▢ 2 cups (400g) sugar
• ▢ 4 large eggs
• ▢ 3 cups (342g) cake flour See notes for substitution if needed. (If not using a scale, lightly spoon flour into measuring cup and level off).
• ▢ 2 teaspoons (8g) baking powder
• ▢ ½ teaspoon (3g) baking soda
• ▢ ½ teaspoon (3g) salt
• ▢ 1 ¼ cups (296g) buttermilk See notes for substitution if needed.
• ▢ ¼ cup (54g) vegetable oil (We use canola oil.)
• ▢ 1 Tablespoon (12g) almond extract

For the Almond Cream Cheese Frosting

• ▢ 2 sticks (226g) unsalted butter, slightly softened
• ▢ 16 oz cream cheese (total weight 452g),softened. (We use two 8 oz packages) Full fat is best.
• ▢ 2 teaspoons (8g) almond extract
• ▢ ½ teaspoon salt 2g optional - it will cut the sweetness, popcorn salt is best to use because it is fine and dissolves faster
• ▢ 6 to 6 ½ cups (690g to 747g) powdered sugar

Cake Decoration

• ▢ We used additional sliced almonds to decorate the cake and created texture in the frosting using a small offset spatula. Rosette border was piped with a star tip 21

Instructions

Prepare Pans and Add Chopped Almonds

• Finely chop the almonds in a blender. (We used a small bullet blender for this) You could also do a rough chop of the almonds, if you like
• Grease and flour three 8 inch round pans, add a circle or parchment paper or waxed paper. Sprinkle the finely chopped almonds over the parchment paper before adding the cake batter.

Prepare the Batter

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt for 30 seconds. Set aside
• In another bowl, add the buttermilk, oil and almond extract.  Set aside..
• In the bowl of your mixer, add the butter and mix at medium speed until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and continue to mix on medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes until lightened in color and fluffy.
• Add the eggs one at a time mixing until the yellow of the yolk disappears.
• With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients (3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of liquid). Mix just until incorporated.
• Divide batter between the three cake pans, pouring the batter on top of the finely chopped almonds on the bottom of the pans.
• Bake at 350 degrees for 22 - 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just few crumbs attached. Let cool 10 minutes and turn out.

For the Almond Cream Cheese Frosting

• Cut the butter into slices and add to the bowl of your mixer. Beat on low to medium speed until the butter is softened and smooth.
• Cut the softened cream cheese into pieces and add to the butter, beating at low to medium speed until incorporated. If you are using a hand mixer you may need to soften the cream cheese a bit more.
• Add the almond extract. Gradually add the powdered sugar beating on low speed until blended. Cover the bowl with a towel to keep down the cloud of powdered sugar.
• Increase mixing speed and mix until fluffy. Don't mix above medium speed or it may become too soft. If it becomes too soft, just refrigerate a short while to firm it up a bit.
• This frosting will pipe best if used while still chilled. You can make it in advance, refrigerate and when ready to use let it soften slightly, then remix. Do not microwave to soften chilled frosting.
• Will frost a 3 layer 8 or 9 inch cake.

Notes

Substitute for Buttermilk: No Buttermilk? Here is a substitution: To a measuring cup, add 1 Tablespoons vinegar or lemon juice. Add milk to the 1 ¼ mark, stir. Wait 5 minutes and it is ready to use.

Substitution for Cake Flour: Using all purpose flour (plain in UK) to make Cake Flour: For each cup of flour in a recipe, remove 2 Tablespoons of flour and replace with 2 Tablespoons cornstarch (cornflour in the UK). This recipe has 3 cups of flour so you will measure out 3 cups of all purpose flour, remove 6 Tablespoons and replace with 6 Tablespoons cornstarch, whisk to blend

Recipe makes 7 ½ cups batter

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