High Altitude Almond Amaretto Cake
A high altitude recipe for moist almond amaretto cake, brushed with amaretto liqueur, and frosted with piped drop flower almond buttercream.
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
- Stand Mixer with Paddle Attachment
Ingredients
Cake
- ¾ cup unsalted butter
- 1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ½ tsp almond extract
- ⅔ cup whole milk, room temperature
- ⅓ cup sour cream
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- ¾ cup cake flour (or all-purpose flour), fluffed, spooned and leveled
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- ¾ tsp baking powder
- ⅛ tsp ground cardamom
- ½ cup finely ground almond flour (or very finely chopped almonds)
- 3 tbsp Amaretto liqueur
Buttercream
- 2 cups unsalted butter
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp meringue powder
- ⅛ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Spray the bottoms of three 6-inch round cake pans 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, whisk together the cooled brown butter with the granulated sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, almond extract, milk and sour cream, until combined.
- In a separate bowl, sift together the flours, salt, baking powder and cardamom. Add the almond flour, then whisk until everything is evenly distributed.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet, whisking just until moistened.
- Divide the batter between the prepared pans, and bake for about 25-30 minutes, until the top springs back when gently touched, or a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean. Set the pans on a wire rack, covered with a clean kitchen towel, and cool completely before frosting.
- Prick the cakes with a toothpick or cake skewer, then use a pastry brush to brush the Amaretto liqueur over the cakes, letting it soak in before assembling and frosting your cake.
Buttercream
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, vanilla extract and almond extract for 1 minute, until smooth.
- Add the powdered sugar, meringue powder and salt, mixing on low until combined. Whip the buttercream on medium high speed for 4-5 minutes, until very light and fluffy, scraping the bowl down several times while mixing. Turn the speed down to "stir" and mix for 1 more minute.
- Assemble the cake layers, filling and frosting them with a thin crumb coat of buttercream. Chill the cake in the refrigerator for 30 minutes before frosting with a final coat of buttercream.
- For the drop flower design on today's cake, fit a piping bag with tip 1M, and fill with buttercream. Pipe drop flowers all over the cake, until it's completely covered.
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