Kat McCleland’s Unbelievably Delicious Almond Cake With Marscapone Whipped Cream

Almond Cakes in their “Hurri-Cakes” incarnation

The View from the Beacon is almost as good as the food

 We’re blessed with a lot of very good restaurants here on the East End of Long Island and, to our way of thinking, The Beacon at 8 West Water Street in Sag Harbor (Tel: 631-725-7088) is near the top of our list.  Owned by David Lowenberg, who is behind some of the best places to eat on all of the East End, it’s one of the few restaurants out here where the view is almost as good as the food: The Beacon overlooks a marina jammed with pleasure boats.  It’s ideal for sunset cocktails.  And it’s a very good idea to get there early
because they don’t take reservations and the place is packed the moment it opens at 6:00 pm.  Beacon’s menu is full of terrific appetizers and main courses all the product of its super talented
chef, Sam McCleland.  But it’s also a very good idea to save room for dessert because that’s when you can treat yourself to the pastry chef’s incredible treats. And the pastry chef in
question is Sam’s wife, Kat McCleland.  A private chef for a very famous Broadway producer, the mother of two small children, we’re not quite sure where the time comes from for Kat to bake our
way into heaven at The Beacon.   But we’re awfully glad she does.  And if you can’t get to The Beacon, at least youcan make this wonderful cake. 

There’s more to the story here.  It’s the secondary
recipe that Andrew developed as we awaited the arrival of Hurricane Irene this past weekend.  Andrew decided to make the almond cake, “Hurri-cakes” for some of our battened-down friends.  He used our brioche tins and made individual almond cakes.  The results were equally spectacular.  But I was glad to see that there was enough batter left over that he and I could have a nice 8 inch cake. We sat in the dark and  endured 55 hours without power, the first 24 of which were truly awful with terrible winds howling outside and trees being battered all around our house. But at least we had our own almond cake to console us.  I was tempted to title this post “Hurri-cakes” but quite honestly, everything over the last few days has been hurricane-hampered and filled with menu
items like “Chicken Tarragon Cooked in the Dark” and “Hurricane Salad” so called because we had all ingredients on hand and no heat was needed to make it.  We will share the latter with you in another post, but for today, it’s almond cake all the way.  Or Hurricakes, if we’re unlucky enough to see another one. And by the way, the brioche tins are optional.  You could use any muffin tins you have. After all, you’re making these in a hurricane for goodness sakes. 

Recipe for Kat McCleland’s Almond Cake with gratitude to Kat:

For the Cake:

1 ½ cups sugar

8 oz. unsalted butter at room
temperature

14 oz. of almond paste, broken into
pieces

6 large eggs

2 tbsp. Kirsch or other liquor

1 tsp. almond extract

½ tsp salt

2/3 cup flour

1 tsp. baking powder

Powdered Sugar for dusting the tops of the cakes.

For the Marscapone Whipped Cream

1 cup Whipping Cream

6 tbsp. Marscapone cheese

2 tbsp. sugar

¼ tsp. vanilla

A cupful of Slivered Almonds, toasted, for garnish. (Optional).

To make the cake:

Spray 2 – 8 inch aluminum cake
tins, sprayed very thoroughly with Baker’s Joy .

Cream butter and sugar in mixer
until light and fluffy.

Add almost paste in small pieces
and beat well.  Make sure it is well
blended and the mixture is uniform.  Beat
in eggs 2 at a time, blend well after each addition. Mix in Kirsch and almond extract.

Mix flour, baking powder and salt
in a small bowl; add to batter. Beat 3 minutes at medium to high speed to
develop cake structure. Spoon batter into prepared pans and smooth top. 

 

Bake at 350 degrees until top is
dark golden brown and slightly firm to the touch.  Cakes will have pulled away from the edge of the
pans, about 35-40 minutes.  Cool in pan
on rack. Once cooled, serve with a dollop of Marscapone Whipped Cream.

To make the Marscapone Whipped Cream:

With an electric mixer, beat the
cream, marscapone, sugar and vanilla together in a large bowl until peaks
form.  (Marscapone Cream can be made 3
hours in advance. Cover and Refrigerate) Makes about 3 cups.

To make the “Hurri-Cakes”:

Pre-heat the oven to 350
degrees.  Generously spray Baker’s Joy
into brioche tins.  Bake for 15 – 20 minutes.  You’ll still have enough batter for a second
8 inch almond cake cooked as above.