Yield:    As much or as little as you’d like!

This is an amazingly simple recipe. This is a no-bake cake, accomplished in mere minutes!

Accompanied by a rich, dark cup of espresso, this almond cake satisfies that after-dinner craving for a little sweet … or simply perfect formed into cookies and served with a cup of English breakfast tea in the afternoon.

Delightful!

Ingredients:

• Almond flour, also known as finely ground almonds
• Maple syrup or honey, to taste
• Rose flower water or orange blossom water
• Vanilla extract (NOTE: This dish is worthy of the finest quality vanilla extract you can purchase. Better yet, you can steep whole vanilla bean pods, cut down the center and seeds removed, in brandy and have this kitchen staple on hand at all times.)
• A pinch of finely ground sea salt, which will ‘peak’ the flavor of your other ingredients
• Dark, unsweetened cocoa (or seasoned sugar, such as Merchant Spice Co.’s Cinnamon Seasoned Sugar or Espresso Sugar), dusted over the top of your finished almond cake

Preparation:

Preparation is simple. Start with an amount that you’d like to make, let’s say a cup or two of ground almonds. Place this in a mixing bowl and add maple syrup or honey, enough to moisten the ground almonds and bring them together into a mass. Add rose flower water or orange blossom water for a delightful floral aspect, along with vanilla extract. A pinch of sea salt is a nice touch, to bring out all of your other flavors. Once you’ve combined all these ingredients in a large mixing bowl and the mixture is moist enough to form into balls in your hands, you’re ready!

If using a mold, such as a pretty copper cake mold, simply press your mass of seasoned almond flour into the mold, being sure to fill the crevices of your mold by gently pushing onto the mixture. Turn the mold over (open side down) onto the dish you wish to serve your almond cake upon, and shake the cake loose from the mold. This takes a little patience and practice, as you want to be careful not to break your serving dish.

You can also press small amounts of the mixture into a ma’amoul mold, and then turn the mold over and gently tap the cookie out onto a wooden board. You could say, give it a whack.

That’s it! You’re done. You may sift cocoa, ground cinnamon or a seasoned sugar over the top of the cake or cookies for an extra finishing touch.

Enjoy!

Special Equipment:

• A copper cake mold
• A ma’amoul or other wooden cookie mold
• NOTE: Although I didn’t use this method this time, this ‘cake’ would also be lovely pressed into a shortbread mold, then released onto a platter.

Dense, yet light, with the floral essence of flower blossom water

A wooden ma’amoul cookie mold is a wonderful way to form cookies from the almond mixture

The almond cake mixture formed into pretty, little cookies using a wooden ma’amoul cookie mold

Almond cake, lovely served on a platter

Almond cake, formed in a copper cake mold