Almond Tea Cakes

These little cakes are precious with varied shades of the same color. Try pink for Valentine’s Day or a girl’s baby shower, or purple for Easter. The sky’s the limit for this delicious Odense Almond Paste tea cake. There are a lot of steps but well worth the effort!

Assembly: 1 hr active time | Bake: 12 to 14 min | Chill: 2 hr
Yield: 18 (1 1/2 inch) cakes

Ingredients

• 1 (7 ounce) box Odense Almond Paste, grated
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 3 eggs (room temperature)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Food coloring or paste of choice
• 2/3 cup seedless raspberry jam
• 1 (12 ounce) package white chocolate melting wafers

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 3 (8 x 8 nch) baking pans. Line each pan bottom with wax paper or parchment. Grease and flour wax paper, or use cooking spray.
2. Beat Almond Paste and sugar in mixing bowl until the texture of sand (a food processor makes short work of this step) and then add to mixing bowl. Add butter and beat until light colored and smooth.
3. Add eggs one at a time, beating well between each, until light and fluffy.
4. Sift flour and salt into almond mixture. Beat on low until just incorporated. Divide batter into thirds (1 cup + 1 tablespoon or 9 1/2 ounces for each bowl.)
5. Add as many drops food coloring or paste to each bowl until you get the different shades of color you desire. Mix each batter until color is well blended.
6. Add batters to prepared pans, spreading evenly to edges. A thin off-set metal spatula works well for this step.
7. Bake all three pans together, unless oven is too small, in that case bake in batches. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes or until edges are slightly golden and a wooden pick inserted in middle comes out clean.
8. Cool pans on wire rack for 10 minutes. Loosen cake edges from pan, with a thin knife, and invert onto rack. Gently peel off wax paper and cool completely.
9. Lay wax paper on a flat surface. Place darkest shade tea cake on wax paper. Spread top with 1/3 cup jam. Repeat with next darker shade and jam, ending with lightest color on top. Cover top cake with wax paper and weight with a book. Chill in refrigerator for two hours.
10. Remove cake from refrigerator. Melt chocolate in a double boiler or in a bowl over barely simmering water. Tint white chocolate even lighter shade than top tea cake. Frost and let chocolate harden. Trim edges and cut into squares, with a very sharp serrated knife. For more tea cakes, cut into smaller squares.
11. Refrigerate cookies in an airtight container in single layers for up to one week.

Notes

To make perfect cuts: warm knife in very hot water (in a tall pitcher or glass) and dry well between cuts. If you have a scale, weighing the batter is easier and more accurate.

Attribution

Recipe and photo used with permission from: Andre Prost, Inc.