A high altitude recipe for a moist, dense, one layer blackberry almond cake made with nutty almond flour, a hint of cardamom and lemon, and sweet juicy blackberries.
You might also love these high altitude recipes for blackberry cornbread cake, blackberry lavender cupcakes, and blackberry crumb pie bars.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
No Mixer Needed. The almond cake batter comes together quickly and easily with just a bowl and whisk.
Smaller Size. This is a modestly sized almond cake with blackberries, baked in just one layer for 8-10 servings.
Moist and Buttery. With brown butter, whole milk and sour cream, this blackberry almond cake is dense, rich, very moist, tender and buttery, with a golden brown crust, very much like almond pound cake. It’s wonderful both for breakfast and for dessert.
High Altitude Tested. I develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. If you’re at a lower or higher elevation, please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for your altitude.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
- Butter. To add the most incredible flavor to this cake, don’t skip the step of browning the butter first.
- Almond Flour. The almond flour not only adds more almond flavor, but also moisture and a nutty richness that makes this cake just so good. You can also use very finely chopped almonds if you don’t have almond flour. An almond cake with almond flour will have a more dense, nutty texture than a vanilla cake that’s just flavored with almond extract.
- Lemon Zest + Cardamom. The combination of fresh lemon zest, woodsy cardamom, sweet blackberries and nutty almonds is just so good.
- Blackberries. I prefer using fresh berries, rather than frozen, when adding them to cake batter. If your blackberries are big, cut them in half so they’re more evenly dispersed throughout the cake.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Lightly spray a 9 inch round cake pan with non-stick baking spray.
- In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Continue to cook the butter until nutty, golden brown milk solids form at the bottom of the pan. This process might take about 10 minutes. First the butter will hiss and splatter as the water evaporates, then as it quiets down, a layer of foam will form on top of the butter. This means the butter is done. Immediately remove from the heat, and scrape the butter, including the brown milk solids, into a large bowl. Let cool for 10 minutes.
- In a bowl, measure the sugar and lemon zest, then use your fingers to rub the zest into the sugar until fragrant. Add the browned butter, eggs, vanilla extract, almond extract, milk and sour cream, and whisk until well combined.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, almond flour, baking powder, salt and cardamom. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, whisking just until moistened. Fold in 2/3 of the blackberries.
- Spread the batter into the prepared pan, and add the rest of the blackberries on top of the batter. Bake for about 55-60 minutes, until a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean or with moist crumbs clinging to it.
- Set the pan on a wire rack to cool for 30 minutes before removing the cake from the pan. Let cool for another 30 minutes, then serve warm, or at room temperature.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!
Frequently Asked Questions
Store leftover cake in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 day, or in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
If you don’t have almond flour on hand, simply grind whole (raw) almonds in your food processor until very finely chopped/ground. The finely chopped almonds work just as well as almond flour in today’s recipe.
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High Altitude Blackberry Almond Cake
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- 9 Inch Round Cake Pan
Ingredients
- ¾ cup unsalted butter
- 1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
- 2 tsp fresh lemon zest
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ½ tsp almond extract
- â…” cup whole milk, room temperature
- â…“ cup sour cream
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- ½ cup almond flour (or very finely chopped almonds)
- ¾ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- ¼ tsp ground cardamom
- 10 oz fresh blackberries (if the berries are large, cut them in half)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Lightly spray a 9 inch round cake pan with non-stick baking spray.
- In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Continue to cook the butter until nutty, golden brown milk solids form at the bottom of the pan. This process might take about 10 minutes. First the butter will hiss and splatter as the water evaporates, then as it quiets down, a layer of foam will form on top of the butter. This means the butter is done. Immediately remove from the heat, and scrape the butter, including the brown milk solids, into a large bowl. Let cool for 10 minutes.
- In a bowl, measure the sugar and lemon zest, then use your fingers to rub the zest into the sugar until fragrant. Add the browned butter, eggs, vanilla extract, almond extract, milk and sour cream, and whisk until well combined.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, almond flour, baking powder, salt and cardamom. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, whisking just until moistened. Fold in 2/3 of the blackberries.
- Spread the batter into the prepared pan, and add the rest of the blackberries on top of the batter. Bake for about 55-60 minutes, until a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean or with moist crumbs clinging to it.
- Set the pan on a wire rack to cool for 30 minutes before removing the cake from the pan. Let cool for another 30 minutes, then serve warm, or at room temperature.
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