Golden Lemon Almond Cake

I spent this past weekend by my sister and her husband in Neve Daniel. I always so look forward to going there for the feeling of home and family and for the awesome food that my sister makes. She made this awesome butternut squash pizza that I'm still craving as we speak. Anyway, she asked me to bring dessert and since the evening meal would be dairy, I had the leisure of making a dairy dessert. In truth, I really wanted something simple and clean and so decided to finally make the Golden Lemon Almond Cake from Rose's Heavenly Cake. It also helped alot that this cake is made with turbinado sugar as I have a massive Costco sized bag of it in my pantry and I'm trying to make a dent in it. I know I must be the last person in the world to try it, but I suppose better late than never. I made only two thirds the recipe and baked it in my kugelhopf pan which turned out to be perfect, with the exception of some browning issues. So easy to put together, this cake was moist beyond belief and pretty lemony, thanks to the abundance of lemon-sugar syrup brushed all over. My sister thought the cake was good and really moist, but noted that she didnt taste the almonds. Sadly, she couldnt really enjoy it because she got really sick Friday night and didnt want to take any more chances with food. I brought the cake back home though where the girls really enjoyed it and polished it off for me.

Golden Lemon Almond Cake
from Rose's Heavenly Cakes

2/3 cup sliced blanched almonds
1 1/4 cups turbinado sugar, divided
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup sour cream, divided
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp loosely packed lemon zest
2 sticks butter or margarine

Syrup:
1/2 cup turbinado sugar
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 350. Spread the almonds out on a cookie sheet and toast until golden brown. Cool completely. Place the almonds in the bowl of a food processor and process until fairly fine. Add 1/4 cup of the sugar and process until finely ground.
In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs, 1/4 cup sour cream, and vanilla in a bowl. Set aside.
In a larger bowl, place the nut/sugar mixture, flour, remaining sugar, leavenings, salt and lemon zest. Using a mixer, beat to combine. Add the margarine and the rest of the sour cream and beat until moistened. Turn the mixer up to high and beat for a minute and a half. Add half of the egg mixture and beat until incorporated. Repeat with the remaining egg mixture. Heavily grease a ten inch bundt style pan.

Pour the batter into the pan and bake about 45-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Make the syrup shortly before its done.

In a saucepan, place the sugar and juice and heat just until almost all of the sugar is dissolved. Do not dissolve. 

Remove the cake from the oven and set on a wire rack. Using a skewer, poke the cake all over. Brush generously with the syrup. Allow to cool ten minutes before turning the cake out onto a serving plate. Brush the cake with the remaining syrup until all of it is used. Allow to cool completely.