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The Café Sucre Farine

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Easy French Almond Cake

Total Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
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This French Almond Cake is incredibly delicious and incredibly easy. One-bowl, no-mixer and just a few minutes to throw together!

Think of this French Almond Cake as an early little Christmas gift. Why give a Christmas gift when December’s barely gotten started? Well, just because I knew you were going to need it.

Vertical Image of French Almond Cake on a white cake stand with text.

I sure do! A cake that’s moist, tender and incredibly delicious, while at the same time being one-bowl, no-mixer and just-a-few-minutes-to-throw-together is exactly what I need at this time of the year.

Vertical closeup image of French Almond Cake on a white cake stand

Don’t wait till the 25th to give me this one, I’ve got all sorts of get-togethers and occasions coming up and people who I’d love to surprise with a special treat.

I need it now!

Vertical closeup of almond topping sprinkled with powdered sugar on French Almond Cake.

And I thought perhaps, you were in the same boat, so it’s comin’ your way today! Merry Christmas!

So that’s about all I’m writing today friends because, just like you, I’m trying to wrap my mind around Christmas and the fact that’s it’s not waiting on me.

Overhead vertical image of French Almond Cake.

The perfect cake to make when you’re pinched for time

I admit, I’m a bit more behind than usual because, instead of doing lots of baking and decorating over the long Thanksgiving holiday, we did something infinitely better. We were incredibly blessed to  welcome a new baby boy into the family! More on that coming up… but with a few minutes to spare, I think I might throw together a French Almond Cake!

In closing, since I have some really sweet French friends like Paule and Barbara and Monique (as close to French as you can get), I thought I better confess the real deal, as I don’t want to get into any kind of trouble with them or have la gendarmerie (the French police) arrest me for a counterfeit cake. So, here’s the scoop: I kind of made up this recipe, but I did base it on my French Grandmother’s Lemon Yogurt Cake which is a favorite of ours and really truly is French. I just changed up the flavors a bit, added almond flour, almond extract, a sliced almond topping and a shower of powdered sugar.

Now I’m clean. Sort of …

 

 

4.78 from 59 votes
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French Almond Cake
An incredibly delicious cake and it's incredibly easy! One-bowl, no-mixer, just-a -few-minutes-to-throw together!
Author: Chris Scheuer
Vertical closeup image of French Almond Cake on a white cake stand
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: French
Prep Time: 25 mins
Cook Time: 1 hr
Total Time: 1 hr 25 mins
Servings: 16 Servings
Calories: 259 kcal
Ingredients
  • ¾ cup plain yogurt or Greek yogurt
  • 1½ cups granulated sugar
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1½ cups all purpose flour
  • ¾ cup almond flour meal
  • 3 teaspoons baking powder
  • ¾ teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon almond extract
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • ¾ cup sunflower oil grape seed or canola oil
  • For the glaze:
  • 1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
  • 3 tablespoons fresh orange juice
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ½ teaspoon almond extract
  • ¾ cup powdered sugar plus more for sprinkling
  • 1/2 cups sliced almonds
US Customary - Metric
Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350˚F (175˚C). Spray a 9-inch round cake pan (with at least 2 inch tall sides) with baking spray. Line bottom of pan with parchment paper and spray parchment paper lightly. Set aside.

  2. Place almonds in a small baking pan. Spread to a single layer. Bake for 15 minutes or until just beginning to turn pale golden brown, stirring every 5 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.
  3. Combine the orange zest, orange juice, powdered sugar and extracts in a small bowl for the glaze. Stir with a whisk until smooth. Cover and set aside.
  4. In a large bowl, combine the yogurt, sugar, and eggs, stirring until well blended.
  5. Add the all-purpose flour, almond flour, baking powder, salt and extracts. Stir to combine.
  6. Add the oil and stir well. Don't worry, at first it will seem to separate, but keep stirring till smooth. This might take 2-3 minutes.
  7. Pour the batter into prepared pan. Bake for 35-45 minutes, until the cake feels springy to the touch in the center and a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Cover loosely with foil if getting too brown near the end and cake is still not done*. Be careful not to over bake. Cool cake on a wire rack for 10 minutes; then turn it out of the pan onto the rack.
  8. While cake is still warm, using a pastry brush, gently pat the glaze all over the cake. Just keep going over the cake till the glaze is gone. Some of it will drip off, but most of it will soak in. Sprinkle almonds over top of cake while glaze is wet and pat gently. Allow cake to cool completely. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.
Recipe Notes

*Spray foil lightly with cooking spray or rub with a bit of oil to prevent cake from sticking to the foil.

Calories 259kcal
Fat 15g
Saturated fat 1g
Cholesterol 41mg
Sodium 129mg
Potassium 134mg
Carbohydrates 27g
Sugar 25g
Protein 4g
Vitamin A 65%
Vitamin C 1.6%
Calcium 69%
Iron 0.6%

 

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This French Almond Cake is incredibly delicious and incredibly easy. One-bowl, no-mixer, just-a-few-minutes-to-throw together!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Caro says

    A beautiful cake. Looks like one ud see in a coffee shop.. I didn’t have natural yoghurt, so substituted hazelnutand reduced the sugar, also changed from oil to softened butter, and it was gorgeous!!
    Many thanks

    Reply

  2. Savvytraveller says

    I would suggest poking holes all over the warm cake prior to glazing. A certain amount of glaze ran into the middle portion of the cake resulting in an uneven glaze.

    Reply

  3. Casie Schuller says

    Made this for my daughter’s birthday, using lemon zest and juice rather than orange It was so delicious! Everyone in the house began eating it directly off the cake dish with forks rather than waiting for individual slices. A winner for sure! Thanks!

    Reply

  5. Allison Murphy says

    Any chance this recipe would work as cupcakes? I’m going to a meetup and we won’t have plates and forks to cut and eat slices, but I have all the ingredients for this in my pantry and it’s easy to whip up. I’ve made it as a full cake already and everyone loves it.

    Reply

  6. Anna says

    The only problem I had making this cake is that the recipe didn’t specify whether it is a standard 9” pan or a 9×3 inch pan. Turns out I had too much batter for my 9×2 inch pan so I had to put some of the batter in another smaller baking pan. It took more than 40 minutes to bake and the center still was not well cooked. Waiting for it to cook thoroughly than caused the edges to brown too much.

    Reply

    • Chris Scheuer says

      Hi Anna, I’m sorry that you had trouble with this cake.
      I’m not sure why the batter didn’t fit in your pan. A 9-inch pan with 2-inch sides is what I use all the time for this cake and it works well. Some pans are only 1½-inches tall and I can see where that might be a problem. I have amended the recipe to include the height of the pan so I appreciate you bring this up.

      Reply

  7. saman javed says

    Hi Thanks a lot for sharing what seems like a very special recipe, everyone here loves it. I have a question though. Could you please explain why the recipe calls for 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract whereas that of Almond’s is just 1. I haven’t baked an almond cake or used almond essence before so I am concerned whether the vanilla flavor overpowers the almond flavor or not. Not that anyone has made this complain, I would really appreciate if you could tell me what justifies more vanilla essence compared to almond, here in an almond cake. How about adding 2 tsp of almond extract and 1 of vanilla instead?

    Reply

    • Chris Scheuer says

      Hi Saman, that’s a good question. Almond extract has a very strong flavor (much stronger than vanilla) and even a teaspoon is a lot although it works in this case. Vanilla will take the backseat but if you prefer, you could just add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. It will still be delicious.

      Reply

  8. Nechama says

    This cake is amazing!!! I think it’s the best cake I ever made. It puts all other cakes to shame! I made it for my mom’s birthday and she went crazy over it!
    I will definitely be adding this recipe to my repoitoire.
    Thanks so much!

    Reply

  9. Elaine Sayson says

    Hello,

    I live in high elevation (8,519 feet). What changes should I make? Thank you! Can’t wait to make this!

    Reply

  10. Janis says

    Loved it! I made this for my husbands birthday and we all liked it. Definitely a keeper. So easy to put together, moist and almondy! Thank you for the recipe!

    Reply

  11. Eliane says

    Hiiii! I am from Brasil and so pleased to be here.
    I would like to thank you for this amazing recipe!!! My family loved!!
    We are so far away but so close, that’s what the art of cooking had done all around the world!
    Thank you!!!

    Reply

    • Chris Scheuer says

      I love that Eliane! So nice to meet you and I’m so happy you enjoyed this recipe! It’s true, we are far and yet cooking and the internet can bring us together!

      Reply

  14. Patricia says

    This is a very good recipe if you love almonds and marzipan this is the one for you. And if you are not too keen on the strong almond flavour, you can put orange extract instead and a zest of orange that would turn it into an orange flavoured cake. So easy to make and delicious too! So happy I found this recipe and I will be making it more often. Thank you for sharing it!

    Reply

  15. Viv says

    I served this cake to guests yesterday, and it was outstandingly good.
    Generally, I find North American cake recipes result in cakes that are much too sweet for me so, where I think this is the case, I usually reduce the sugar by 20% on the first attempt, and further reduce (almost always) or increase (hardly ever) the amount as necessary on later attempts. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to experiment with this cake and I did think it would be very sweet, so I took a risk and reduced the sugar by a third, down to a single cup.
    Result: Perfection! My guests were European and Canadian, and one of them is a sugar-holic, but every one of them remarked on how lovely the cake was. There’s one small slice left, and my husband has put his name on it, so I guess I’m out of luck.
    Thank you very much for a lovely recipe. It’s joined by list of favourites!
    PS Thought you’d like to know that I made the cake a few days ahead and froze it (without the glaze). Unwrapped it and defrosted it in a cake caddy at room temperature, and glazed it several hours before needed. Perfect!

    Reply

  17. Daphnee Kelly says

    THIS RECIPE WAS SOOOOOOOO GOOOD!! My hubby and I loved it! I cannot wait to make it again. Thank you for sharing this with us.🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽❤️

    Reply

  19. DonnaT says

    I so want to make this, though I have a couple of questions I hope you can answer. I make large sheet cakes for my church Bible study. Do you know if this can be doubled ? I’m using an 18 x 22 inch bakery cake pan. I’d like to try a light application of the glaze and then a light frosting with Ermine buttercream to decorate as a birthday cake. Can you foresee any problems with this? I do appreciate your help.

    Reply

    • Kirby says

      Hi Chris,
      Would love to bake this for a 60th this weekend. Do you think it would be sturdy enough to bake two cakes and layer them on top of each other (with cream in between)? Or would that require an elaborate dowl setup?
      Thank you!

      Reply

  20. Radia says

    I made this cake, last November for my mother law because she loves anything with almonds (it reminds her of (France). Honestly i have had this cake every Sunday ever since :). She loves this cake so much she makes one every single week, and when she visits she brings one as a gift for the host.
    Thank you for this wonderful recipe,

    Radia

    Reply

  22. Nazish says

    What a yummy looking cake! Can I make it a day before (for a casual dinner) or would you suggest make it the day of?

    TIA!

    Reply

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