I've been super excited to share this recipe with you guys! It's something I've been thinking about for a long time, and I finally made it happen — and it totally exceeded all expectations. It was ADDICTIVE. Seriously addictive. I love all things almond, and the topping on this was absolutely perfect, which made for a deadly combination impossible to quick eating. More on this later.
In preparation for our Asia adventure, I decided I needed to buy an e-reader. Derek has an iPad, which he uses mostly for reading, but I have an iPhone and don't feel that I need a real tablet... everything I'd use the iPad for, I do on my iPhone! That narrowed it down to simpler e-readers, and I finally settled on getting the Kindle PaperWhite. IT. IS. AWESOME. Not only is it way more affordable than any tablet (although that money might go out the window in ebook purchases), it's small, light, easy to read, and completely has me hooked. AND if you run across an unfamiliar word, you just tap it and the definition pops up! AND that word is added to your "vocabulary builder" on the home screen. I'M LEARNING SO MUCH! No, this is not an informercial and I'm not being paid to say any of this. I'm just really smitten!
The only "bad" thing about getting my Kindle is that now I can't stop reading. Partially because I actually enjoy reading and now have endless books at my fingertips, but mostly because the kindle shows you what percentage of the book you've read. On every page, in the bottom right, you can see a little percentage telling you how far through the book you are. I'm not an overly competitive person in general, but I do compete with myself and this is the exact kind of situation to get me going! I set a kind of "baseline" on the book I'm currently reading the first day (8%), and now I HAVE TO read 8% every day, or I'm falling behind. I'm currently two days ahead. It's ridiculous. Does anyone else have this problem? Maybe I should see if I can turn off the percentage, lest I spend the rest of my life obsessively reading. I suppose there are worse habits to have!
So, with that, I'm taking any/all book recommendations. I'll read anything interesting — fiction or non-fiction, poetry, biography, ANYTHING. Bonus points if you have it on kindle and can "share" it with me. ANOTHER cool feature of Kindle! I'm all about it.
Back to the coffee cake! This is really a simple recipe — classic coffee cake with almond extract and slivered almonds mixed in. I made mine in a spring-form pan, mostly for presentation, lined with parchment. You could make it in a normal baking dish, too! You may be tempted to fold the blackberries into the batter: I suppose you could, but I found that pressing them into the top of the batter (after the batter was spread in the pan) was perfect. I just wish I'd added MORE blackberries! I thought I was at maximum capacity, but I think you could go a little crazy with the fruit, if you wanted.
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Blackberry Almond Coffee Cake
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 50 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 6-8 1x
Ingredients
- For the Cake
- ½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- ¾ cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¾ cup milk
- 2 cups flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup slivered almonds
- 1 cup fresh blackberries
- Topping
- ⅓ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup flour
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- ¼ cup slivered almonds
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 F. Butter a 9" springform pan, or a baking dish, and line with parchment.
- With a mixer, cream the butter together with the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at at time.
- Add the almond and vanilla extract, along with the milk.
- In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Whisk to combine, then add to the wet mixture along with the ½ cup slivered almonds. Mix just to combine.
- Spread the mixture into the prepared pan and press the blackberries into the top of the batter, which should be thick.
- In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon for the topping. Use a fork to combine, then cut in the butter until crumbly. Mix with the ¼ cup slivered almonds and sprinkle overtop of the batter.
- Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean from the center of the cake.
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