Maple Almond Cake
Today's maple almond cake recipe is perfect for fall and winter gatherings! Three soft, moist maple almond cake layers are flavored with maple syrup, crushed almonds, extracts, and a heavenly almond cream cheese frosting.
If you are looking for your next fall cake recipe, this is a great one. We've combined elements from our popular almond cake and maple cake recipes to create this delicious dessert.
Table of Contents
How to a Make Maple Almond Cream Cheese Cake
You can find the full, printable cake recipe further down in this post. Here is a quick look at the steps.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 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 and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt for 30 seconds. Set aside
- In another bowl, combine these wet ingredients: buttermilk, vegetable oil, maple syrup, and extracts (vanilla, maple, and almond extracts). Set aside.
- In the bowl of your mixer, add the butter and mix at medium speed until smooth.
- Gradually add the white and brown 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 after each until the yellow of the yolk has blended.
- 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 8 inch cake pans, pouring the batter on top of the finely chopped almonds in the prepared 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.
Almond Cream Cheese Frosting
The cake layers have a bit more maple flavor than almond, and so we balanced this by using almond cream cheese frosting! This is a creamy, flavorful frosting that we will be using in between the cake layers are well as to frost the cake.
The recipe combines softened cream cheese and butter, powdered sugar, a pinch of salt, and almond extract. If it becomes too soft at any time, simply refrigerate to thicken. As always, cakes that are frosted with cream cheese frosting will need to be refrigerated. You will love this easy, decadent frosting.
Assembling the Cake
Once the cake layers have cooled, it is time to assemble!
Place the first cake layer on the pedestal. As we mentioned in the recipe, the maple glaze is optional but we like the added boost of maple flavor. Using a silicone pastry brush, we lightly brushed the first layer with a bit of maple syrup.
Next, apply a layer of almond cream cheese frosting. Top with the second maple almond cake layer and repeat the glazing and filling step.
For the top layer, I glazed it and then placed it on top of the cake glazed-side-down. I did this just in case it would make it easier to frost, although with such a light amount of glaze, it likely would work either way.
Next, we applied a thin coat (crumb coat) of almond cream cheese frosting around the top and sides of the cake. At this point, we like to chill the cake for 10-15 minutes in the freezer (or longer in the refrigerator) to firm everything up before applying the final coat of frosting.
Decorating the Cake
Decorate the cake however you like! We created scalloped impressions around the cake using a small rounded offset spatula (working in vertical rows from top to bottom, and repeating all the way around.) The border of chunky shells and rosettes is piped from a 1M piping tip (large star).
Recipe FAQs
More Almond Cake Recipes
Aside from our other favorite maple cakes including Maple Pound Cake and Maple Pecan Cake, we've made many more almond cakes as well!
Make sure to try out our Almond Cake, Almond Cream Cake, and Lemon Almond Cake, and Almond Raspberry Swirl Cake just to name a few!
Have you made this? We would LOVE for you to leave a ⭐️ rating as well as a comment and photo below! We really appreciate your feedback!
Maple Almond Cake
Ingredients
- ½ cup (48g) sliced almonds, crushed (To be added to the pans before the batter)
- 1 ½ sticks (170g) unsalted butter, softened. (holds it shape but dents when pressed)
- 1¼ cups sugar (250g)
- ½ cup light brown sugar (100g)
- ½ cup pure maple syrup (we used dark maple syrup)
- 4 large eggs, room temperature (If in a hurry, place eggs in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes.)
- 3 cups cake flour (342g)See notes for substitution if needed. (If not using a scale, lightly spoon flour into measuring cup and level off).
- 2 teaspoons baking powder (8g)
- ½ teaspoon baking soda (3g)
- ½ teaspoon salt (3g)
- 1 ¼ cups buttermilk (296g) See notes for substitution if needed.
- ¼ cup vegetable oil (54g) (We use canola oil.)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (4g)
- 1½ teaspoons almond extract (6g)
- 2 teaspoons maple extract (8g) (We used McCormick Brand)
For the Almond Cream Cheese Frosting
- 3 sticks unsalted butter, slightly softened (339g)
- 16 oz cream cheese (total weight 452g),softened. (We use two 8 oz packages) Full fat is best.
- 2 teaspoons almond extract (8g)
- ½ teaspoon salt (2g)
- 7 cups powdered sugar (adjust slightly up or down to your liking) (805g)
Maple Glaze
- We used pure Maple Syrup as a glaze for our cake layers - You won't need much- maybe ¼ cup or so in total. Enough to apply a light coating to the top of each layer.
Cake Decoration
- We used additional sliced almonds to decorate the cake and created texture in the frosting using a small offset spatula. We piped chunky shells and rosettes for the top border using a large star tip (1M).
Instructions
Prepare Pans and Add Chopped Almonds
- Chop/crush the sliced almonds into smaller pieces . (You can use a small bullet blender for this, or you could place in a ziplock bag and use a rolling pin to crush.)
- 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.
For the Cake Layers
- 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, maple syrup, vegetable oil and extracts (maple, almond, and vanilla). Set aside..
- In the bowl of your mixer, add the butter and mix at medium speed until smooth.
- Gradually add the brown and white 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 after each addition until the yellow of the yolk has blended.
- 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 if needed to keep down the cloud of powdered sugar.
- Increase mixing speed slightly until well combined. Be careful not to over-mix as it will become very soft. (If this happens, chill it in the refrigerator for a bit.)
- This frosting will pipe best if used while still chilled. You can make it in advance, refrigerate and then bring out to the kitchen counter to soften up a bit. (Re-mix if needed).
- Will frost and fill a 3 layer 8 or 9 inch cake.
Assembling the Cake
- Place the first *cooled* cake layer on a cake base or pedestal. Brush with a thin layer of maple syrup. This is an optional step. It is not needed for moistness, but it does add an added boost of maple flavor.
- Spread a layer of almond cream cheese frosting on top of the cake layer. Add the second layer and repeat step(s). After lightly glazing the final cake layer, I placed it glazed-side down on top. It may not make a difference but I did this just in case it would make it easier to frost.
- Next, fill in any gaps between the cake layers with frosting and apply a thin coat of frosting (or crumb coat) around the top and sides of the cake. At this point we like to chill the cake for about 15 minutes in the freezer to firm up the frosting. This firms everything up and prevents the layers from sliding as you decorate. Apply the final coat of frosting.
Decorating the Cake
- Decorate the cake however you like! We added scalloped impressions around the cake using a small rounded offset spatula (working in vertical rows from top to bottom, and repeating all the way around.) The border of chunky shells and rosettes is piped from a 1M piping tip (large star).
Storing the Cake
- This cake should be refrigerated in an airtight container or under a cake dome until within 2-3 hours of serving. Bringing the cake closer to room temperature before serving will give the cake and frosting time to warm and soften.
Sounds wonderful! :-) I like the idea of baking almond pieces into the cake tops too! Awesome as always :-)
This sounds decadent. I am gluten free. If I were to use a gf all purpose flour subbing the corn starch, do you think this would work? Have you tried it?