“We LOVE this recipe!! I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve made it now. It’s a keeper recipe for me. Sooo much better than lemon poppy seed. Thanks so much for sharing! It’s the best!!” ~ Jeanne
Every once in a while I can’t decide what I want to make. I’ve got too many sticky notes plastering my desk, I’ve bookmarked too many tempting blog posts, there are too many cookbooks lying around with too many little tabs sticking out of their pages, and it overwhelms me. At times like this the id takes over. I just make an arbitrary decision. I want almond poppy seed cake.
But of course no decision is ever arbitrary. Almonds are up there with lemons and chocolate in my top flavors playbook. And ever since I made that delicious Tangerine Cake I’ve been wanting to revisit its moist dense texture, absolutely loaded with crunchy poppy seeds. Between the almond flour, the paste, the extract and the Amaretto there’s 4 layers of almond flavors here, and I could have made it 5 if I’d thought to sprinkle some nuts on top.
There’s no need to buy a big bottle of Amaretto just for this…those little mini bottles are perfect. And you can pop the other half of the tube of almond paste into the freezer for another use. Did you know you can also make your own almond paste? Here is a tutorial from Food52-– all you need is just 4 ingredients and a food processor!
I love the combination of almond and poppy seeds in this cake–it’s classic but often overshadowed by more popular lemon poppy seed recipes. I’ve used it a several times on the blog, in my Amaretto Poppy Seed Ice Cream, and in my Almond Poppy Seed French Toast, for instance. Oh, and of course I’ve made classic Almond Poppy Seed Muffins.
Note: This moist cake keeps well but the glaze will not stay smooth and pretty after a day under a cake dome. If you are serving any kind of glazed cake for company, it’s best to glaze it the same day you’ll be serving it. I won’t lie, I eat this for breakfast, but if you aren’t up for that, at the very least trying having a sliver before lunch!
more for almond lovers
- Almond Ricotta Cake
- Green Beans Almondine
- Paste di Mandorla ~ Sicilian Almond Paste Cookies
- Almond Fig Cake
- toasted almond pavlova with summer berries
- Raspberry Almond Puff Pastry Danish
- Almond Pear Tart
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Amaretto Poppy Seed Cake
Ingredients
- 1 cup room temperature butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 3.5 ounces almond paste, crumbled
- 3 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 3 Tbsp Amaretto
- 1 cup poppy seeds
glaze
- 1 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar
- 1 tsp almond extract
- milk or cream to thin
Instructions
- Set oven to 350F
- Cream the butter, sugar and almond paste together.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, while beating.
- Mix the buttermilk with the almond extract and Amaretto in a measuring cup.
- Whisk the dry ingredients together in a small bowl with the poppy seeds.
- Add the dry ingredients alternately with the wet to the butter, beating just to combine.
- Spoon the batter into a greased tube pan and smooth out the top.
- Bake for about 45 – 55 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Tube pans vary in capacity and shape, so baking times will vary as well.
- Cool completely before glazing.
- For the glaze mix the confectioner’s sugar with enough milk or cream to thin to a glaze consistency, and add in the extract. You can also use Amaretto to thin the sugar if you prefer. Sprinkle a few poppy seeds or sliced almonds on top if you want to.
A wonderful cake, but I killed it with the glaze! Too watery; never hardened. Boo hoo! I kept adding more sugar, then it got too sweet. I’m lousy at glazes, but a great baker. Can you give me any sound advice for making a rich , white glaze, as pictured?
It sounds like you had a little too much liquid in your glaze Barb ~ try adding just a bit at a time until you get a thick but spreadable glaze and then spoon it onto your cake, nudging it with your spoon to get it to fall over the edges.
How would you adapt this recipe for high elevation?
I don’t have a lot of experience adapting cakes for high elevation William, but here’s a link to a guide from King Arthur Flour: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/high-altitude-baking.html
My whole family LOVES this recipe! Every time I make it, it disappears quickly. I’ve probably made it a dozen times already. Every time I make it for my parents, my mom always has at least 2 slices.. 🙂 A friend said she had only had lemon poppy seed before, but after trying this, she said she preferred it with almond. I agree. This is one recipe I’ll be making for years to come. Thanks for sharing!!
This is an older recipe so it’s really nice to hear this, Jeanne, thanks so much! I have a weakness for almond, the more intense the better!
Hi Sue! … Im from Chile, South America and I love your recipe.. One question, may I use marzipan (homemade) as Almond Paste?
Thanks a lot! I´m doing it tomorrow!!!
I’m afraid you can’t substitute one for the other, Maria, they’re very different. Almond paste has more almonds and less sugar, and a different consistency altogether. I have an upcoming post on how to make your own almond paste, and the ingredients are:
1 1/2 cups blanched almonds
1 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar
1 egg white
1 teaspoon almond extract
You’ll process the almonds until finely ground, then process in the rest of the ingredients. Hope this helps!
Thanks Sue!
Hi. I don’t think we get almond paste in South Africa? Is there anything that I can use as a substitute or even leave it out? Also, by almond flour do you mean ground almonds? Many thanks. Kim
Almond flour is just ground almonds, or almond meal, so you can make that yourself with plain almonds. And almond paste is a paste of ground almonds, sugar, extract, and egg white. I’ve got a homemade version coming up on the blog soon, but in the meantime you can google a recipe.
Oh my gosh, this cake looks PERFECT! Almond is one of my favorite flavors, too, especially when it comes to baked goods. I can see myself eating this whole thing in one go if I’m not careful!
Just made this and unfortunately it was really disappointing! I’m an experienced baker, I followed ingredients to a T, and it came out flavorless and it was waaaaay too many poppy seeds. I would take it down to just a cup, maybe even less, and add more almond flavoring. Too bad.
Interesting that you should post this today Liza, because I just finished another recipe that is a variation of this cake. I did reduce the poppy seeds to 3/4 cup, so I think you can definitely reduce them.
Cyn—it’s about 3.5 ounces for half the tube. Enjoy!
May I know how many grammes or ounces is 1/2 tube of almond paste please? In Singapore, almond paste is sold in containers by weight. Thank you!
This looks absolutely heavenly. Almond and lemon are two of my favorite flavors as well. I know that I would absolutely love this.
P.S. I have an absurd number of your cake and muffin recipes flagged to try. Next time I actually have a cake to make it’s going to be a total throw-down to see which one is chosen.