Let Her Eat Cake: Amaretto and Almond Cake

Oh look, LHEC has gone all Italian. There are two people to blame for this, and they are Antonio Carluccio and Gennaro Contaldo. I do love those Two Greedy Italians. From the sound of it during this week's brilliant DS Food Chat on twitter, the a lot of you feel the same! I made this cake after a very Italian night of pasta and several large glasses of red wine. It's an easy recipe, one bowl and no faff, so is perfect for the occasionally inebriated baker.

Amaretto is one of those magical substances that lends itself to many things; drinking, adding to cakes, pastries, sauces, drinking again... So if you've got a bottle burning a hole on your booze shelf after making Caleigh's wonderful Cherry Roulade, then here's another almondy confection to enjoy. 

You can replace the cream cheese with mascarpone, if you're that way inclined, but be sure to taste as you go, since it may need a slightly lighter touch with the flavourings. 

Amaretto and Almond Cake
You will need:
For the cake

• 175g butter, softened (but not melted)
• 175g caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 140g self-raising flour
• 25g chopped almonds
• 25ml milk
• 1 tbsp amaretto 
• 3 amaretti biscuits (or other soft almond biscuits)
• 1 tbsp brown sugar

For the frosting and filling: 

• 200g cream cheese (or mascarpone) 
• 3 tbsp icing sugar
• 1 tbsp amaretto
• 2 amaretti biscuits
• Almonds, to decorate

Make it!
The cake:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 160C/325F/Gas mark 3. Grease and line a 20cm round cake tin. 
2. Cream together the butter and the caster sugar until light and fluffy. 
3. Beat the eggs, then add to the mixture, along with the flour, almonds and milk and amaretto. Stir to combine. Crumble in the amaretti biscuits. 
4. Scatter the base of the tin with a layer of brown sugar and dollop the mixture over the top, smoothing it out to the edges. 
5. Bake for 1 hour, checking at around 40-45 minutes and covering the edges with tin foil, if they are browning too quickly. 
6. Turn or lift out onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely before icing. 

The frosting:

1. Beat the cream cheese in a bowl for a minute or so until light in texture.
2. Sift in the icing sugar a tablespoon at a time, beating in between.
3. Stir in the amaretto to taste.
4. Carefully cut your cake in half (watch out: pieces of nut might cause it to snag).
5. Spread each half with a layer of frosting and crumble an amaretti biscuit over the bottom half.
6. Sandwich together and frost the top. A flat knife works well for this. Crumble another biscuit over the frosting and decorate with almonds. 
7. Wake Carluccio up from his nap and tell him that you clearly make a better cake than him.