Bake a Cake and Share it Too!!

Yo Yo! I BAKED a cake last weekend!

The hubbs and I were going over to a friends house and we wanted to contribute to the occasion by bring dessert! So...what to we decide to bring? A Strawberry Almond Torte! The recipe was originally a cherry-almond torte, but with neither of us being huge cherry pie filling fans...we opted to change it to Strawberry! It was wonderful! Very light, yet filling, moist and tasty! I highly recommend it!

~Strawberry-Almond Torte~
(Adapted from Pillsbury.com)

1 box (1 lb.) yellow cake mix w/ pudding

1 1/4 c. water

1/3 c. vegetable oil

3 tsp. almond extract

3 eggs

1 can (21 oz.) strawberry pie filling

1 tbsp. cornstarch

2 c. whipping cream

1 tub (8 oz.) whipped cream cheese spread, softened

1/2 c. sliced almonds, toasted (+ more for garnish)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease the bottoms of two 9-in. round cake pans. In a large bowl, beat cake mixture, water, vegetable oil, almond extract, and eggs with an electric mixer on low speed until just combined. Then beat on medium speed for 2 min. Pour batter evenly into pans and spread level. Bake for 25 to 30 min. or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 min. then remove from pans and cool on rack for at least 30 min.

Meanwhile, in a 2 qt. sauce pan, mix the pie filling and cornstarch. Cook over medium heat about 7 min. stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil. Remove from heat to cool.

In a medium bowl, beat whipping cream on high speed until soft peaks form. Beat in cream cheese spread until fluffy. Reserve 2/3 c. whipped topping for garnish. Stir almonds into the remaining cream mixture.

To assemble cake: With a serrated knife, cut each cake layer in half horizontally. Place 1 half layer cake on a serving plate; spread with 1 c. almond cream. Top with second layer; spread with 1 c. pie filling mixture. Top with the third half layer of cake; spread with 1 c. almond cream. Place remaining layer on top.

Frost the side of the torte with remaining almond cream mixture. Spoon remaining strawberry mixture on top of torte, spreading almost to the edge. Spoon the reserved, almond-free, topping mixture into a pastry bag with a star tip, or a Ziploc bag with the corner snipped off. Pipe cream around the top edge of the torte to join and cover the cream topping with the strawberry filling. Sprinkle the top rim of torte with extra toasted almonds. Refrigerate for 2 hrs. before serving. Store in refrigerator.

This cake had WONDERFUL almond flavor. The cake itself was very moist and light. Similar to a strawberry shortcake, but with almond flavoring. When I made this, there was very little whipped topping to work with so I altered the current recipe by increasing the topping mixture. I also used a block cream cheese that I whipped prior to mixing into the whipping cream. You can use whipped spread too. The topping was not overall to sweet and the cream cheese is NOT overly powerful...you will like this even if you don't like cream cheese frostings (I find some carrot cake cream cheese frostings to be overly sweet and cream-cheesey, is one was not like that at all!) You can also adapt this to use any flavor of canned pie filling you wish! You can also experiment with the extract/nut combo...like hazelnuts and blueberry, maybe.

Interior shot of the layers (sry about the light!)

I hope that you all try and enjoy this recipe!

Toodles!!