It's my birthday, I can bake if I want to...
I've been dreaming about buttercream frosting - well, more like drooling over it - so I wanted to make a cake and frost it with buttercream. But I wasn't in the mood for chocolate (weird) and I didn't want a plain white cake, so I decided to use one of my favorite flavors - almond. I was going to put a layer of raspberry in the middle of the cakes, but the Husband stated that he doesn't like "fruit" in his cake. So I layered it with more buttercream!
I invited several neighbors over to sample - I needed to share the 4 sticks of butter that ended up in the complete final product. Everyone (all gluten eaters and several children) thought it was delicious. I was very happy with the final product, it is very moist, but light - and oh the buttercream frosting!
As a starting point, I used this recipe for White Cake from Amanda's Random Ramblings. I doubled and modified it to suit my almond fancy.
Almond Cake with Buttercream Frosting
1 cup white rice flour
2/3 cup sorghum flour
1/3 cup almond meal
1 1/3 cup tapica starch
2/3 cup potato starch
2 cups sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tsp xanthan gum
1 1/2 cup butter (3 sticks - this is not an everyday cake unless you need to gain 50 lbs)
6 eggs
3 tsp vanilla
2 tsp almond flavoring
1 cup milk
Whisk together all the dry ingredients (white rice flour through xanthan gum).
In a mixer, beat the butter until it becomes fluffy and lighter in color. Add the flour mixture and stir for 1-2 minutes until completely combined.
In a small dish, whisk the eggs with the vanilla and almond flavoring. Add that to the mixer and stir until incorporated.
Add the milk and mix until smooth about 2 additional minutes.
Grease and flour (I used white rice flour) two 9 inch round cake pans. Pour the mixture into the 2 cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes until the cakes are lightly browned and a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
Cool in the pans for about 10 minutes. Turn out onto a cooling rack until completely cooled.
Buttercream Frosting
1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened
3-4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp almond flavoring
3-4 Tbls milk
Beat butter in a mixer for a few seconds until it is creamy. Add 2 cups of powdered sugar and beat on medium speed until fully incorporated and butter gets creamy again.
Add 1 more cup of powdered sugar and the almond flavoring. Beat again, adding 1 Tbls of milk to keep the creaminess.
Add more powdered sugar until it reaches your desired sweetness. Then add more milk (1 Tbls at a time) if necessary to get to the desired frosting thickness. Allow plenty of stirring time between each addition of milk.
