Swedish Visiting Cake

Ever since I had Dorie's book I can't seem to not wanting to bake anything from it. Everytime I think I want to heat up the oven automatically my hands will reach out to this book. So for today's recipe, it's one of Dorie's and you can find it from her book Baking : From My Home to Yours, or you can google the title and there are numerous blog that has this recipe included.

There's this one specific website created for those who have purchased the book to join. Every week one of the members will choose one recipe for the whole team to bake and post on to their blog at the same time. I had fun reading the blogs, but decided not to join the website as I live in a country that has limited supplies of what they have. 

According to the book, this recipe was originally from mother of a friend of Dorie. Those days in Sweden, they would bake this cake whenever they saw visitors or guests walking down the walkway to their house. That would only mean one thing, a simple and easy preparation, which was why I wanted to bake this cake despite the absence of chocolate. Hehe.

It turned out very good. The prep time was short, I think about 10-15 minutes before the pan is in the oven. I really like the texture. So moist and dense. I can taste the lemon. Although the almond on top was a bit off for me AND I forgot to sprinkle the sugar. I wonder if the cake would taste even better if chocolate was added to it, say, chocolate sauce ? I'll try that the next time. ;)

Swedish Visiting Cake

Ingredients :

• 1 cup sugar
• Grated zest of 1 lemon
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract ( omitted )
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 stick ( 113 gram ) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1/4 cup sliced almonds

Methods :

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Butter 9 inch round pan and line with parchment.

2. Add lemon zest to sugar and blend together with your fingers until sugar is moist and fragrant.

3. Whisk egg one at a time until well blended.

4. Whisk in salt and extracts, if using.

5. Stir in flour. Fold in butter.

6. Pour butter into pan and smooth the top. Scatter sliced almonds over the top and sprinkle sugar.

7. Place pan on baking sheet and bake for 25 - 30 minutes or until golden and crisp on the outside. Let cool for 5 minutes.