Categories: cakes

Ingredients

• Almond base:
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds
• 3 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp. yellow cornmeal
• 3 Tbsp. packed light brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
• cake:
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup yellow cornmeal
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. grated lemon or orange peel
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• Icing:
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 2 tsp. lemon or orange juice
• 2 1/2 tsp. water
• Sliced almonds

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 9-inch round cake pan with cooking spray and line bottom with parchment paper.
2. To prepare almond base, spread almonds in a pie plate. Bake 8 minutes or until golden. Let cool. Finely chop almonds and set aside 3 Tbsp. Combine remaining almonds with flour, cornmeal and brown sugar in a medium bowl. Add melted butter and stir with a fork until crumbly. Sprinkle on bottom of prepared pan.
3. To prepare cake, whisk flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
4. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar on medium speed until blended. Beat eggs, lemon peel and vanilla. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture alternately with milk. Pour into pan and spread evenly.
5. Bake 35 to 40 minutes, until golden brown and wooden pick inserted near the center comes out clean. Let cool in pan on wire rack 10 minutes. Remove cake from pan, discard parchment paper and let cool right-side-up on rack.
6. To prepare icing, sift confectioners’ sugar into a medium bowl. Add lemon juice and water and whisk until smooth. (If necessary, add more water, 1/4 tsp. at a time.) Spread over top of cake. Sprinkle reserved chopped almonds and additional sliced almonds around top edge.

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