This Almond Cake with Amaretto Filling is an almond lover’s dream. It’s covered in an incredible almond buttercream. This cake takes a little time to prepare but it is worthy of a special occasion. It makes a fabulous wedding cake.
Hello and welcome to SpicySouthernKitchen.com. My name is Christin and I love food. Spicy foods and southern foods are my favorites. I love to try new things in the kitchen and it’s really not an exaggeration to say that I hardly ever cook the same thing twice.
Since it’s Valentine’s Day, I thought I’d share an extra-indulgent recipe- Almond Cake with Amaretto Filling. This has to be one of my favorite cakes ever. It has a wonderful almond flavor in the filling, the frosting, and the cake itself. It’s the almond lover’s trifecta. This cake is perfect for any special occasion whether it be Valentine’s Day, Christmas, a birthday, or even a wedding. My husband and I had an almond-flavored cake for our wedding. I still think about it almost 17 years later.
This is a recipe that was published in Taste of the South Magazine which is one of my favorite magazine’s for recipes. But sometimes their recipes can be hit or miss and they don’t always have the best directions. I was pleased to find that this recipe turned out exceptionally well, which is good because I put a large amount of time and energy into it.
I was a little uncertain about making the almond cream beacause after soaking the almonds in the 2 cups of heavy cream, I ended up with a lot less then 2 cups of almond cream, even after pressing the heck out of the almonds in the strainer. But the recipe doesn’t say how much you should end up with. I was worried I had too little and that I’d end up with a dry cake. I fugured I’d rather ere on the side of having too much liquid ingredients rather than too little, so I added in about another 1/4 cup of heavy cream. Because after all, how can you have too much heavy cream?
I was also a little afraid that my filling would not turn out because my gelatin didn’t seem to disslove very well. But it has heavenly. I would have been perfectly happy to forget the cake layers and just sit down on the couch with a spoon and the bowl of amarreto filling.
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Pin ItMore Almond Desserts
- Amaretto Cheesecake
- White Texas Sheet Cake
- Orange Almond Sheet Cake
- Coconut Almond Cream Cake
- Amaretto Brownies
- Almond Poppy Seed Pound Cake
Almond Cake with Amaretto Filling
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream
- 2 cups sliced almonds, toasted
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 2 1/4 cups sugar
- 6 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 3 1/2 cups cake flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
Amaretto Filling
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream, divided
- 1/2 cup amaretto liqueur
- 1 (.25ounce) package unflavored gelatin
- 1/4 cup sugar
Almond Buttercream Icing
- 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, softened
- 4 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 1/4 cup reserved almond cream
- 1 tablespoon amaretto liqueur
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 3 (9-inch) round cake pans with nonstick baking spray with flour. (Or butter and flour each pan.)
- In a large saucepan, bring cream to a simmer over medium heat. Add almonds to hot cream and remove from heat. Let stand 30 minutes. Strain almond mixture and reserve cream. (Really press down on almonds with a rubber spatula or back of a spoon to get as much liquid out as possible.) Place 1/4 cup of the almond cream in a small bowl to reserve for icing.
- In a large bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until creamy. Add sugar and beat well. One at a time, add the eggs, stopping to scrape down sides of bowl periodically. Add extracts and beat to incorporate.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture, alternating with remaining almond cream, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat until combined and divide batter evenly among the 3 pans.
- Bake until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean, 23 to 26 minutes. Let cool in pans 5 minutes and remove cakes from pans and let cool entirely on a wire rack.
- Make Amaretto Filling. In a small saucepan, combine 1/2 cup cream and amaretto liqueur. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Remove from heat. Add gelatin to cream mixture, stirring until dissolved. Refrigerate for approximately 30 minutes. Mixture should be firm, but not set.
- In a large bowl, beat remaining 1 1/2 cups cream at high speed with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Add sugar and chilled gelatin mixture and beat well. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Beat for 2 minutes on medium-high speed and then spread between cake layers.
- Make Buttercream Icing. In a large bowl, beat butter at medium-high speed until creamy.
- Gradually add in confectioners’ sugar. Add almond cream and beat well. Add amaretto and extract.
- Spread Amaretto Filling between layers and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Spread icing on top and sides of cake. Store cake in refrigerator.
Notes
2 cups are used to make the almond cream. The almond cream is then divided and 1/4 cup is reserved for the Buttercream Icing and the rest is added to the cake batter.
A separate 2 cups of cream is used to make the Amaretto filling.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Making it right now and house smells delicious! Thanks for the recipe.
Yay! Hope you enjoy and wish I could come over 🙂
Just made this cake for Easter tomorrow. The layers are cooling and the filling is in the refrigerator. I will make the frosting in about an hour, then assemble. Looks great so far! And oh boy, are you right, the amaretto filling is heavenly….
Yes, the filling is heavenly! Happy Easter!
I just made this as cupcakes this time, and used my cupcake filling tip to insert the amaretto cream filling into the cupcakes. I then frosted with the amaretto buttercream. Delish!
Oh my! That sounds wonderful! May have to try that. Sounds easier than making a cake. Really think that is one of my all-time favorite recipes!
How far in advance do you think I could make the frosting and filling? I was think of making them Thursday or Friday and then make the cake on Saturday for a Sunday party.
The filling should be fine to make ahead. I always have frosted cakes right when I make the frosting so not sure about that part. You would probably need to let the frosting come to room temperature and maybe beat it with the mixer again so that it wouldn’t be too firm to spread.
This sounds amazing! I will be making for a retirement party this week!
Hop it turns out well for you Lesley!
This looks amazing! I’d love to make this cake but have a recovering alcoholic in the family. Any recommendations for substituting the amaretto? I would think almond extract would work, but since it wouldn’t be the same amount of liquid, would that be an issue? Thanks!
Hi Liz! I think it would probably work subbing almond extract. General guidelines are to sub 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon almond extract for 2 tablespoons of amaretto. Since there is 1/2 cup amaretto in the filling, that would equal 8 tablespoons if I am doing my math right. I don’t think I’d use more than 1 teaspoon of extract since it is so strong in flavor. And I would probably add some extra heavy cream, maybe 1/4 of a cup. Hope it works for you!
What do you do with almonds that you have soaked?
The almonds just get tossed out. You could probably use them for something, but they don’t taste that great once they’ve been soaked. Much of their flavor is gone.
this sounds incredibly delishious! i may have to make it! 😀
It is so,so good Debbie. Let me know if you try it
OMG! lol i made this today! incredibly rich and very good! do you know if this can be froze? there is no way my husband and i could eat this in one week – i would love to be able to freeze some of it!
So glad you liked it Debbie! I haven’t tried freezing it, but I would think that it would freeze well. If you freeze some, let me know how it turns out.
What would you suggest if I wanted to make this cake ahead of time? I am worried about the filling getting too runny if I make it the night before.
The gelatin should keep the filling from getting runny. I made mine a day ahead of time and it was fine. Make sure to keep it in the refrigerator though.
Wow such a gorgeous cake, it sounds so delicious too!
Thanks so much Rosie, it is one of my favs!
You are a person after my own heart!!! Amaretto and cream are two of my favourite things in Life!! You can probably tell how excited I am by all the exclamation marks but I am not ashamed…you deserve them!! Love this 😀
I love almond flavored anything! So surprised Amaretto ckaes aren’t more popular. As much as I love Chocolate cakes, they have nothing on amaretto!
Agreed!! Amaretto are so underrated! But well…less men more share, as the saying goes right? So the less who like ’em and buy ’em, the more left for us! Muahahaha! 😀
Exactly! 🙂