The cake consists of an airy vanilla sponge lovingly topped with a layer of buttery nutty caramel. It is divine. Everyone ate a slice of the cake in silence, which usually means it's so good that no one can think of anything else to do or say but eat their cake.
This isn't a difficult cake to make by any means. But I would say that you have to make sure that the eggs and sugar are really thick and voluminous before you fold in the other ingredients. And you do have to watch the cake topping when you put it in the oven - you want a good colour on the almonds, but it can burn very easily.
Here's the recipe for this wondrous cake. I have also gone to the trouble of including measurements in oz since I have lost the grams scale I had when I moved house. I've also heard this cake is good with a cup of coffee.
Toscakaka (Swedish Caramel Almond Cake)
For the cake:
70ml milk
1 tsp lemon juice
75g/3oz unsalted butter
3 eggs
150g/5oz caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
150g/5oz plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp fine sea salt
For the topping:
150g/5oz flaked almonds
125g/4oz butter
125g/4oz light brown sugar
50ml milk
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp espresso powder (I replaced this for vanilla as I'm not keen on coffee)
Preheat oven to 160C/320F. Grease a deep 9" round tin (preferably with a removable bottom) and line the bottom with baking parchment. Stir the lemon juice into the milk and leave to sit (to make buttermilk, you can replace with 75ml if you have it on hand). Toast the almond flakes in a oven tray for 5-7 minutes until they're a light golden brown, then set aside. Melt the butter for the cake in a medium saucepan then pour into a bowl and leave to cool (keep the pan to use later).
Whip the eggs, sugar and vanilla together in a stand mixer on high for 5 minutes (time this if at all possible), until the mixture is a creamy colour and very thick (when you remove the whisk, the trail should stay visible for at least 5 seconds). While it whisks, sieve the flour, baking powder and salt together. Sieve 1/3 of the flour mixture over the egg bowl then gently fold in with a big metal spoon or large spatula. Drizzle half of the milk over the top and fold in. Repeat with the next 1/3 of flour, the rest of the milk, then the rest of the flour. Finally drizzle half of the butter over the top, fold in, then repeat with the remaining butter. Be very gentle but thorough, scraping the bottom - it's easy to get little pockets of flour but you need to conserve as much volume as you can. Carefully transfer to the tin by scraping it gently out from as little height as possible.
Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden and set (a toothpick should be able to be removed cleanly - it needs to be cooked to support the topping).
While it bakes, make the topping. Place the butter, sugar, milk, salt and espresso powder into the saucepan and stir as the butter melts. Keep heating for a few minutes - it should bubble and thicken slightly. Stir in the almonds and set aside. When the cake is ready, turn the oven up to 200C/390F, remove the cake to a rack and spoon the glaze over the top. Spread the almonds out into an even layer. Place back into the oven and bake for 8-10 minutes until the glaze is darkened and bubbling. Cool for a five minutes then slide a knife around the edge of the tin to loosen the sides and remove the cake to a rack.