how to bake a swedish almond cake (mandelkaka) !! ✩

Hello my sweets! I hope your July has been lovely -- I've been really trying to relish that last of my time here in Sweden. We had our big family boule tournament this past weekend (I made it to the final!! Woo!! I did not win but I am still very proud), and I've been running little odd errands with my mom here and there (and watching SO much Master Chef Australia and Midsomer Murders)

I also baked up this little Swedish almond cake, and wanted to share the recipe with y'all! It is SO simple, so I'll try not to go all millenial-food-blogger-writes-a-novel-before-their-recipe on you, and let's crack in >:)

INGREDIENTS:

For this recipe, you will need:

• 1 1/2 cups of sugar
• 3/4 cup of butter, melted and cooled a bit
• 2 eggs
• the zest of 1/2 a lemon (optional)
• 1 teaspoon of almond extract
• 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
• a large pinch of salt
• sliced almonds
• coarse sugar (like a demerera, or even a raw cane sugar, for sprinkling on top of the cake)

(I'm also gonna tell y'all an embarassing secret -- I actually messed up the butter quantity my first go around making this cake, I was thinking of 1 1/2 sticks of butter but put in 1 1/2 cups of butter, so my first cake was a gooey butter-y mess, so the final photo is actually of my second much better attempt that went how this cake usually goes for me hehe)

First and foremost, preheat your oven to 350˚F/180˚C. Butter and flour a 9 or 10 inch circular pan, or whatever similar size pan you've got on hand. I used a ceramic tart dish this go around and it worked great!

Then, we melt the butter, let it cool a bit (so it doesn't cook the eggs), and add the sugar:

Stir those together! Then, add your 2 eggs, almond extract, and your lemon zest (if you're adding it!), and mix to combine. I'm a big fan of adding the lemon cause I feel it adds some extra ~pizzazz~ to the cake.

Next, grab a sieve, as we'll be sifting our flour and salt into the bowl.

Fold that in, making sure to not leave any dry pockets of flour, but don't overmix it!! Your batter is gonna be quite thick.

Then, pour your batter into your prepared dish, and spread it so it's nice and even.

Sprinkle a couple tablespoons of coarse sugar over the top of the cake, and follow it up with the sliced almonds!

Throw that bad boy in the oven for 30-40 minutes, until it's golden brown and a tooth pick inserted into the center comes out clean. :o)

Place it on a cooling rack or hot pad once it's all done, let it cool for an hour-ish (so the cake can set), and then slice and enjoy!! You can also put some powdered sugar over it, if that's your style, but I personally prefer it without. This cake is so perfect with a cup of tea or coffee -- it's my favorite fikabröd >:) It's got the chewiness of a cookie, but the crumble of a cake and it's just *chef's kiss*

I do not have any photos of us eating this cake cause it disappeared fairly quickly lmao but it was VERY delicious!! And truly so simple -- you can whip it up in under an hour, and since everything goes in one bowl, the clean-up is minimal (which is the best part).

I've attached a little recipe card to this post that you can print out and stick on your fridge or stick in your recipe box. One file is just the card itself, and the other one has it formatted on a letter-sized sheet of paper so it'll print to 4x6 inches.

I actually keep this recipe on my fridge since I bake it so often, and now I don't have to look it up every time I make it!! I should also say, this specific recipe is from the blog Itsy-Bitsy Kitchen. There are a lot of different kinds of Swedish almond cake that come up when you search for a recipe on Google, but this one is what I always think of when I think of almond cake. I'm so happy I could share it with y'all!

Love you lots, and happy baking!! Pls lemme know how it goes!