Good food: bringing people together since before you were born. A great example of this is Parties That Cook’s Almond-Orange Butter Cake with Ginger Crème Anglaise. Did I stress the “Orange” part enough? This Sweet (Sixteen) treat is perfect for March Madness AND the upcoming Giant’s Season! Invite your Elite Eight friends over to watch the NCAA brackets narrow, or take the MLB preseason time you have left to practice this game-winning recipe! After all, WE TALKIN’ BOUT PRACTICE!

Almond-Orange Butter Cake with Ginger Crème Anglaise
You can find this recipe and other great dessert recipes in our Dessert Recipe Library!

Ingredients
Ramekins:
3 Tablespoons butter
3 Tablespoons sugar

Cake:
3 ounces almond paste or marzipan, cold
1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons sugar
5 ounces unsalted butter, softened
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon orange oil (optional)
1 1/2 teaspoons orange zest, finely chopped or grated
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt

Ginger Crème Anglaise:
3-inch knob of ginger, peeled
2 cups milk
1/2 vanilla bean, slit down the length of the bean
4 egg yolks
1/3 cup sugar

Garnish:
Orange slices and toasted almonds

Methods/Steps

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Prepare Ramekins: Using a pastry brush, brush 8 ramekins with melted butter. Coat each ramekin with sugar, tapping any extra sugar.

Cake: Process the almond paste in a food processor until it is in small pieces (1/8″ in size) then place in a large bowl. Add the sugar and mix well, using a hand or stand mixer. Add the soft butter and continue to mix until it is pale and fluffy. Break the eggs into a separate small bowl and add the vanilla, orange oil and grated orange zest and beat lightly to combine. With the mixer running, add egg mixture to the butter mixture in small batches, approximating one egg at a time, waiting for each addition to be fully incorporated before adding the next (the mixture might look a little curdled and this is fine).

Sift Dry Ingredients: Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt into a small bowl.  Add these dry ingredients into the butter/egg mixture all at once and mix in gently just until incorporated. Do not over mix or the cake will be tough.

Bake Cake: Divide the batter evenly among the ramekins. Place the ramekins onto a sheet pan and place into the  pre-heated oven. Bake for about 20 minutes.  If it is browning too quickly, cover loosely with foil.  When the cake is springy to the touch, is starting to pull away from the sides, and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, it is done.  Cool on a rack for 10 minutes in the pan, and then turn out onto a serving plate to cool completely.

Blanch Ginger: Slice ginger into 1/4” thick slices.  Place in a small saucepan with cold water and bring to a boil.  Drain and reserve the ginger.

Make Crème Anglaise: In a medium saucepan, add the milk.  Scrape out the vanilla seeds and add them to the milk along with the rest of the vanilla bean. Add the blanched ginger.  Turn the heat to medium-high and bring just to a boil, stirring occasionally.  Let sit for about 10 minutes to steep. Beat the yolks and sugar together until well-blended and thick.  Temper the yolks by slowly stirring in the hot milk. Pour the yolk/milk mixture back into the saucepan. Heat the mixture, stirring constantly, until thick. The mixture is ready when it thickly coats the back of a spoon, and a line drawn with your finger remains intact or when the temperature reaches 160°F.  Strain through a fine sieve into a bowl over and an ice bath.  Chill until ready to serve.

Serve: Pour some of the crème Anglaise onto a plate.  Place a cake on top.  Garnish with oranges  and toasted almonds.

Serves/Makes
Serves 8

Recipe adapted by Parties That Cook® www.PartiesThatCook.com from Joanne Weir.