Sweet Adeline's Almond Fruit Cakes with Cornmeal Streusel
Also called almond plum cakes, cornmeal almond cake
Dense, moist almond-paste cakes with seasonal fruit under a crunchy cornmeal streusel.
- Makes
- 8 to 10 individual cakes
From Sweet Adeline Bakeshop, Berkeley
Ingredients
Amounts are for the recipe. Sizes, times and temperatures in the method are not scaled.
Almond cake batter
Cornmeal streusel
Fruit
Amounts worked out from the other system are rounded.
Method
Batter
Grate the almond paste (340 g12 oz) on a box grater, or cut it into small pieces; freeze it 20 minutes first if it is sticky. Beat it with the granulated sugar (150 g¾ cup) in a stand mixer on medium until it breaks down into an even, sandy texture, 3 to 5 minutes. This is the most important step, because lumps of almond paste won't smooth out later.
Add the butter (170 g1½ sticks) and beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Scrape the bowl. Add the vanilla (1 tsp) and the orange zest and beat briefly.
Add the eggs (5) one at a time, beating well after each. The batter will look loose and almost curdled after the first couple, then comes together. Once all the eggs are in, beat on medium-high for 2 minutes, until smooth and emulsified.
Whisk the flour (78 g½ cup + 2 tbsp) and baking powder (4 g1 tsp) together and fold them in by hand with a spatula, just until no dry streaks remain.
Streusel
Whisk the brown sugar (200 g1 cup), flour (125 g1 cup), cornmeal (140 g1 cup), cinnamon (1½ tsp) and a pinch of salt. Pour in the butter (150 g10 tbsp) and stir with a fork until evenly sandy and clumpy. Refrigerate until needed.
Fruit
Halve and pit the plums and cut them into ½-inch wedges. Toss with the sugar (13 g1 tbsp) and a squeeze of lemon juice and let them sit while you prepare the pans. Drain well before using, and leave the juice out.
Assemble and bake
Heat the oven to 325°F. Butter 8 to 10 ramekins (6 oz, about 3½ inches across) or a standard muffin tin generously and dust with flour or sugar, or line the bases with parchment rounds. Set them on a sheet pan.
Fill each ramekin half to two-thirds full; the batter rises a lot. Press 4 or 5 pieces of fruit into the top of each, pushing them in slightly without burying them. Scatter about 2 tbsp of streusel over each.
Bake until the streusel is deeply golden, the edges pull away from the ramekin, and a toothpick in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs, not wet batter. Go by the toothpick: small ramekins can be done in 20 to 25 minutes and a muffin tin in 18 to 22, while fuller ramekins take up to 35. The centers should be set but still moist. This cake is meant to be dense and fudgy, not dry.
Cool 10 to 15 minutes, then unmold while still warm: run a knife around the edge, flip onto a board and tap. Or serve them in the ramekins.
Notes
- Other fruit. Italian prune plums are ideal. Cherries: halve and pit. Apricots: halve, pit and quarter. Nectarines or peaches: peel if you like, pit and cut into ½-inch wedges.
- Almond paste, not marzipan. Almond paste is less sweet, coarser and higher in almonds. Odense (tube) and Solo (can) both work. With a 14 oz (397 g) package, use all of it and 6 eggs, with everything else unchanged.
- Temperature. 325°F is deliberate. The sugar and almond brown fast, and any hotter the outsides darken before the centers set.
- If a cake sticks, warm the base of the ramekin. Don't chill them before unmolding.
- As one cake. A standard 9 × 2 inch pan is too tight for this batter. Use a 9-inch springform 2½ to 3 inches deep, a 10-inch pan, or a deep-dish pie plate. Butter it, line the bottom with parchment and butter that. Bake 50 to 60 minutes, tenting with foil after 35 minutes if the streusel is browning too fast.
- Freezing. Assemble fully in the ramekins, then wrap tightly in plastic and foil. Bake from frozen at 325°F, adding 10 to 15 minutes, and tent with foil if the streusel browns before the center sets. Toss watery fruit with 1 tsp cornstarch first. Don't freeze the batter loose; the baking powder loses strength once it is wet.
- These are better the next day, as the fruit's moisture moves into the crumb and the almond flavor deepens. Store them wrapped at room temperature.
- Chocolate version. Skip the fruit, bake plain with the streusel, and pour warm ganache of equal parts chocolate and cream over the top after unmolding.