High Altitude Almond Pound Cake
Moist, buttery and dense almond pound cake, drizzled with sweet almond icing.
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
Ingredients
Cake
- ¾ cup unsalted butter
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ⅔ cup whole milk, room temperature
- ⅓ cup sour cream, room temperature
- 2 tsp almond extract
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs, lightly beaten, room temperature
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- ½ cup finely ground almond flour
- ¾ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- ⅛ tsp ground cardamom
Icing
- ¾ cup powdered sugar
- ½ tsp almond extract
- ¼ tsp vanilla extract
- 5-6 tbsp heavy whipping cream
- 2 tbsp chopped or sliced almonds
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 F and line a loaf pan with a parchment paper "sling" so the paper hangs over two sides. Then spray the paper and ends of the pan with non-stick baking spray.
- In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Continue to cook the butter, swirling the pan occasionally, until nutty, golden brown solids form at the bottom of the pan, and the butter has a layer of foam on top. Immediately remove from the heat and scrape the butter, including the browned bits, into a mixing bowl. Let cool for 10 minutes.
- Add the sugar to the butter and whisk until combined, then gradually add the milk, sour cream, extracts and eggs, whisking until well combined.
- In a separate bowl, sift together the all purpose flour, almond flour, baking powder, salt and cardamom. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and whisk the batter for about 15 seconds, until smooth.
- Spoon the batter into your prepared pan and smooth out the top. Bake until a cake tester comes out with moist crumbs clinging to it and the crust is golden brown and slightly cracked. It should take about 45-55 minutes to bake.
- Cool the cake in the pan for 30 minutes, then grab the paper to lift the cake out of the pan and onto a cooling rack. Cool until slightly warm or room temperature, before serving.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature for 4-5 days, or freeze indefinitely.
Icing
- For the icing, combine the powdered sugar, almond extract and cream until smooth, then drizzle over the cake while it's slightly warm.
- Sprinkle with the almonds before the icing crusts over. Let the icing set completely before slicing.
Notes
- Room Temperature Ingredients: Your cold dairy ingredients (butter, eggs and milk) need to be at room temperature before mixing this cake. Set them out several hours before you plan on baking so they can warm up.
- Leftovers: Pound cake freezes extremely well, so leftovers can be wrapped in several layers of plastic wrap or stored in an airtight container to enjoy later.
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