Annie's Poppy Seed-Almond Cake
Author: Nicole
Ingredients
  • 1¼ cups sugar
  • ⅓ cup canola or vegetable oil
  • 2 large eggs, at room temperature
  • 2 tablespoons poppy seeds
  • ¾ teaspoons almond extract
  • 1½ cups cake flour (see notes)
  • ¾ teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 2.5 ounces of almond paste, cut into small pieces (optional)
  • ½ cup milk (skim is fine)
  • ⅓ cup sliced almonds
  • confectioners’ sugar
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
  2. Butter and flour a loaf pan.
  3. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, oil, eggs, poppy seeds and almond extract until blended.
  4. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Add almond paste, if using, and stir.
  5. Dividing the flour mixture into 3 batches, whisk the flour mixture into the egg mixture alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.
  6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
  7. Sprinkle the almonds evenly over the top.
  8. Bake until the top is deep brown and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about 65-75 minutes.
  9. Transfer to a rack and let cool in pan for 10 minutes.
  10. Invert onto the rack, turn right-side up and let cool completely.
  11. Dust with confectioners’ sugar before serving.
Notes
* If you don’t have cake flour, you may substitute 1 cup minus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour for 1 cup of cake flour.
* If you're using almond paste, put it in the freezer for a few hours as it's easier to cut.
* Cake freezes well.
* Recipe can be doubled or tripled.
* A double recipe fits into a 9x13-inch Nordic Ware Daisy or Snowflake cake pan. Bake for 1¼ hours.
* Make it gluten-free: substitute 1-1/2 cups Cup4Cup gluten-free flour for the all-purpose flour. Everything else remains the same.
Recipe by Riegl Palate at https://www.rieglpalate.com/annies-poppy-seed-almond-cake/