Classic Almond Flour Pound Cake
 

For the first time during my year of LCing, I decided to try out a LC recipe for a cake. I found this one at http://www.lowcarbluxury.com/

I am a good cook, but not much of a baker, yet this recipe came out perfectly- even for me. It tastes more like challah bread than pound cake. Definitely a nice treat -- all natural ingredients and a little slice topped with sweet butter goes a long way.

A few notes:
1. There is a typo/confusing wording in the original recipe. I corrected it here.

2. I went the cream cheese and butter route the recipe recommened for a creamier cake - instead using two sticks of butter, I used one stick of butter and 4 ounces (1/2 cup) of Philly cream cheese

3. I baked this in my bundt cake pan. Worked really well.

4. In my oven, this cake was done in 40 minutes.


Classic Almond Flour
Pound Cake


Ingredients:
1 cup butter (2 sticks) softened at room temperature*
1 cup Splenda
5 eggs - at room temperature
2 cups almond flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon lemon extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream butter and Splenda well. Add eggs - one at a time - beating well after each. In a separate bowl, mix almond flour with baking powder. Add into egg mixture a little at a time while beating. Add lemon and vanilla extracts. Pour into greased 9"-10" Springform pan (or 9" round cake pan) and bake at 350°F for 50-55 minutes.

Alternatively, for a creamier cake, use 1/2 cup butter (1 stick) and 1/2 cup softened full-fat cream cheese. Also change flavors for this cake by using different extract flavors and even food color if you like.

Makes 12 servings. 5.5 grams of carbohydrate per serving when using all butter. With cream cheese, allow 6.1 grams of carbohydrate per serving.

Where can almond flour be purchased?

almond flour
 

Almond flour is really easy to make....just grind almonds in a food processor or coffee grinder. Watch that you don't do it for too long, or you will end up with almond butter - which is good also, but not what you are looking for.
you can grind any type - toasted or not, with skins or without.
I'm afraid that doesn't help you to buy the stuff, but hopefully it gives you some ideas.
Happy baking!
Carolyn

Almond flour
 

I buy my almond flour at a local gourmet grocery, but there are plenty of online stores that carry it. Here's a link to one:http://www9.netrition.com/almond_cl...flour_page.html

I think I'll give grinding my own a try. In what other types of recipes can almond flour be substituted for regular flour? :confused:

I made the pound cake this weekend and was pretty impressed with the texture and the overall results. Some notes:

- The bitter flavor of artificial sweetener really comes through, especially when the cake is still warm. It dissipates somewhat when the cake is chilled. I think next time I'll try adding spices or reducing the amount of sweetener to reduce that taste.

- There's no need to use a springform pan. The cake does not stick to the pan; it pulls away from the edges of the pan.

- A springform pan allows melted butter to leak out while the cake is baking -- put a rimmed baking sheet underneath it.

- Beating the eggs into the creamed butter produces a gloppy mess, not at all like using the same method with creamed butter and sugar. It all straightens out when the almond flour is added though.

- I wonder if this enormous amount of butter is really necessary. When the cake is chilled it becomes downright hard because of all the solidified butter. I'd try cutting it by one-quarter next time.

The recipe is worth making, my only hestitation is that it's pretty hard to resist when you know it's sitting in the fridge. The carbs add up when you keep going for another piece.

Almond Flour
 

I've found a good online source for almond flour at almondsonline.com out of Stockton, California. The cost for almond "anything" (flour, roasted, plain, flavored, blanched, slivered, raw, etc) is the same. I paid approximatelt $3.99 per pound, delivered in California, when I purchased $40 worth of their products (the shipping will be more for out of state orders, but is readily listed on their site). The products are current crop and fresh --but watch out for those GARLIC flavored roasted almonds --Oh Lawdy, a bit on the strong side!

I made the pound cake again, this time with only 2/3 cup of Splenda. It works and the nasty artificial sweetener taste is mostly gone. It is less sweet, but it still tastes like cake.

I made this tonight and it's pretty nice. :thup: I used the half butter/half cream cheese method, and I used 1/2 cup of Splenda plus 8 drops of Stevia. I can always taste the bitterness of heated Splenda, so...

I took a picture and posted it.

Here are the nutrition stats with my modifications. For 1/8 of the recipe: 356 calories, 33 g fat, 10 g protein, 7 g total carb - 3 g fiber = 4 net carbs.

going to have to try this one for my sweet tooth. sue

Kroger carries it now, in the health food section.

anyone tried this in the microwave to cook it? sue

Made this last night. It was ok, really light tasting. I think I might add some heavy cream next time around.

I make muffins with ground almonds all the time. I use 1 cup of LC fruit instead of sweeteners. The pound cake looks devine!

I just made this using 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup cream cheese. It's still in the oven. I'm a bit worried, though, because the batter was really thick - it didn't exactly "pour" into the buttered pan. I almost scraped it back out to add some cream, but decided to bake it as is. I've set my timer for 40 minutes, just in case. I'll report back.

Made this tonight with a few additions. When it came out I wasn't overly impressed though. I thought it was a touch dry. The kids however loved it and said it was one of best cakes they have had. We put a little vanilla and strawberry sweet and low syrup on top to help with the dryness and they went to town.

Mmmm. I might try this recipe for my birthday cake. Now I just need to find a frosting recipe! What's birhday cake without frosting?

I agree it was a bit dry. "Twiggy" wrote about creaminess - I did't note anything I'd call creamy. Not nearly as sweet as I had expected. We ground our own almond slivers in a blender to make flour or meal: easy. Ours was done in 35-40 minutes. I'd hate to go 55 mins as in instructions.

My daughter pointed out if you sniff the bag of Splenda, it smells like a tire store.

Overall: Good stuff. We'll do it again.

-Steve

I made this tonight for my husbands birthday. It was good, a bit grainy because I used my own ground almonds instead of prebought flour (the store didnt have any) It smelled yummy and was very very good dunked in coffee!! I did the butter/cream cheese method and I also used my bundt pan and added splenda mixed with lemon and orange extract and sprinkled splenda on top. I got about 18 slices.

Trader Joe's carries almond meal too.