Almond Birthday Cake With Sherry-Lemon Buttercream

This cake is so good, but I have tried four times now to get it perfect. Finally, here’s what I’ve learned. 1) The cake tends toward the dry side. Watch it closely on the oven. It goes from jiggly to overdone in no time. Err on the side of taking it out sooner than later. 2) Make sure all the frosting ingredients are the same temperature, and follow the instructions carefully. I used 2 sticks of butter instead of 3 for the frosting. It could handle another stick if everything is mixed right.

This is a swiss meringue buttercream, but it leaves out the instruction to beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. So if your buttercream is runny or curdling, this could be the issue. After the double boiler step, beat on high speed til the eggs form stiff peaks, then another 6 minutes until cool.

Can anyone suggest how to adjust this recipe for 12” round pans? I am hoping to have 14 servings

Reducing the butter in the buttercream, as recommended by many here, won’t reduce the butter flavor, only the volume. With 2 sticks of butter instead of 3 it’s barely enough for the cake. I made it based on modifications here—less butter, brushing cakes with sherry simple syrup instead of adding that to the buttercream—and then increased zest & cinnamon by a lot and the butter cream is still quite buttery. The adjustment may need to be at the white/sugar mixture, or a diff recipe altogether.

I like a high icing-to-cake ratio, so even though I baked 2 cakes, I froze one and sliced and frosted the other. This made the perfect amount of cake for two. No problems with the buttercream frosting for me, but I'm convinced that the problems experienced by others has to do with a too-warm kitchen. (My kitchen was apparently Goldilocks right on this cold, November afternoon.) Overall: A nice, light almondy and lemony cake, with an interesting frosting.

Needs stronger almond flavor for my taste - I will try a higher proportion of almond to wheat flour, and replace the vanilla entirely with almond extract rather than the half and half I did. Quite tasty though, nice texture.

Do not add the full three sticks of butter to the frosting and add more lemon zest to both cake and frosting. Don’t overcook that cake or it will be dry!

The cake was too dry and too dense. I won’t try this again.

I had trouble with the buttercream, which at first began to separate, so I chilled it briefly. Then it seemed to get heavier and pastier by the minute when started working on it again. I decided to cut my losses and use it as is, even though there were now some visible butter curds. Turns out my fix was wrong: my baker daughter later advised me that buttercream problems can usually be resolved by more beating. For better instructions, see Pumpkin Layer Cake With Caramel Buttercream

The Sherry was overpowering and curdled the frosting. The lemon definitely did not come through at all. The cake was fine, but could be improved with almond extract and a rougher chop.

This was ok. Tasted like carrot cake. Cake was dry. Buttercream didn’t get fluffy enough, so added 2c powdered sugar. I probably won’t make it again. Some almond extract might be nice to give an almond flavor. The ground almonds gave mostly texture. Also didn’t have sherry.

The almond cake turned out beautifully - mine was nice and moist (i let my measuring cups overflow a bit on the sour cream). The frosting was very thin for me, and I only put in 2 tablespoons of the sherry. I ended up having to add powdered sugar to thicken it up a bit. The taste is delicious but the frosting looks a bit like melted vanilla ice cream. Next time I may do as other bakers suggested and pour a sherry mixture over the cake directly instead of mixing into the buttercream

The buttercream frosting was inedible....

This birthday cake sounded so great. I closely followed instructions and unwisely waved off the frosting warnings from many of you who left notes here. I let the egg mixture cool. The butter was room temp. My "frosty buttercream" looked more like freshly mixed Quickrete. Everyone ate the cake - 5 sticks of butter, a cup of sour cream, 2+ cups sugar, a splash of booze - heck, yeah. But - no. I won't be making this one again. Epic fail. On buttercream. Sigh.

Question (at risk of public flagellation): I want to bake the almond cake as cupcakes-- what time/temp would you recommend? We're traveling for my husband's birthday and cupcakes make things way easier.