All I remember is the almond cake...

When I was about 13 years old my grandparents used to have a family night once a month. My Mom, my brother and I would go to their house along with my aunts and uncles and cousins who lived nearby.

Usually it was a birthday celebration. The family was very large and there were always 2 or 3 birthdays to celebrate each month. We would do them all at once at this family gathering. If I remember correctly my Aunt Sherry always made a big sheet cake. I'm pretty sure it was her. I definitely remember that we always had 2 or 3 half gallons of ice cream and one of them was ALWAYS rainbow sherbet because my grandpa couldn't have ice cream.

For a short period of time, maybe a few months, that tradition morphed into a bit of a geography dinner party kind of thing. We would choose a country each month and then each branch of the family was given an assignment to make food, sing a song or tell a story about that country.

All these years later I don't really remember any of the countries that we chose except Norway.
And I don't remember a single thing about Norway except this cake that my Aunt made.
Because, really, what matters more than the food and the family anyway? Right?

This cake is so simple to make that my little brother and I used to make it all the time just for a snack. It was the perfect dessert after a Pizza Hut cheese pizza delivered hot to our door for $5 while my Mom was working nights. Can you believe you could once get a pizza delivered for $5 including tax and tip? It's true.

The cake is simple to make with simple ingredients. But it tastes SOOOO good! Almost like marzipan but not so rich. Give it a try!

Norwegian Soft Almond Cake
Serves 8
WW points per serving: 4

3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 Tablespoons pure almond extract
you can use imitation but it's no where near as good

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease and flour 9 inch cake pan.
Combine all ingredients until thoroughly mixed and creamy.
Pour into prepared cake pan.
Bake 20-25 minutes until golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Cool 5 minutes in pan.
Remove from pan and cool, upside down, on cake rack.
Sprinkle with powdered sugar if you like.


We really love the simplicity of the almond cake. So much that it rarely gets a chance to completely cool before it's devoured.
But I have tried a couple of variations that were pretty tasty too.

I've used orange extract instead of almond and then sprinkled a 1/2 cup of milk chocolate chips on the cake as soon as it comes out of the oven. When the chips are shiny, spread the chocolate evenly over the cake.

I've added flaked coconut to the batter and then topped with milk chocolate chips as above for an "Almond Joy" version.

I don't recommend adding chocolate chips to the batter itself as they always sink to the bottom.

Yesterday I made a couple of these cakes and I was thinking that they would be really good stacked with a thin layer of raspberry jam in between. Of course that would greatly increase the size of my hips. So maybe YOU could try it and let me know.