Have all ingredients at room temperature.

Preheat the oven to 350F/180C

Generously butter and flour either one 9×5 inch/22x12cm loaf pan or two 8×4 inch/20x10cm loaf pans.

Using a stand mixer or sturdy handheld mixer with the flat beater attachment, beat the butter, scraping down the sides and bottom of bowl as needed, until butter is lightened and creamy. Give this about five minutes.

Add the sugar, scraping sides and bottom of mixing bowl as necessary, allowing ample time for the butter and sugar to blend.

Begin adding the almond paste bits. They will take up to ten minutes to fully amalgamate; be patient with this step or the cake will have lumps of paste in it.

Scrape the sides of the bowl periodically, and be sure to scrape the bottom, too.

Once the almond paste is blended into the butter and sugar, add the eggs, one at a time, waiting for each to blend before adding the next one.

Add the extract and the milk. The batter may curdle, split, or collapse at this point and look horrible. Don’t worry. It will find itself. Just keep on mixing.

Once the liquids are blended, fold in the flour mixture. You can do this by hand, with a large spoon or spatula, or use the blender on low speed. Whatever you do, don’t overmix. Once the flour is just blended, stop and pour batter into the pan(s).

The larger cake takes 60-75 minutes. The smaller cakes take 30-40 minutes. Both will need to be covered with foil to protect the tops from burning.

Cakes are ready when a tester comes out clean.

If you are baking two cakes but your oven cannot accommodate two loaf pans, fill both with batter. Put one in the oven, lightly cover the other, and refrigerate it until the oven is free. Do not leave cake batter in the mixing bowl, as it will lose air and not bake properly. Learn from my mistake. Once the oven is free, take the pan out of the refrigerator, uncover it, and bake.

Cool cakes on rack; after 30 minutes, run knife around edge of pan and remove cake. Return to rack. Cool completely, then wrap well. Almond pound cakes are best after 24 hour rest. Cakes will keep, wrapped, at room temperature 3-4 days. After that, refrigerate 3 more days. Almond pound cakes may be frozen up to three months.

Notes:

The almond extract in this recipe may be substituted with Amaretto, vanilla, or rum.

Instead of whole milk, you can use water, or half-and-half.

Superfine sugar can be made home with a food processor.

Theme and Variation:

To bake this cake without almond paste, just omit it. Bake a plain pound cake. Replace the almond extract with a teaspoon of vanilla extract.

To replace the almond paste with another flavoring, consider the following:

the finely grated zest of one lemon or lime. Orange and tangerine zests also work, but be mindful of their size. Aim for a mounded tablespoon. Gently fold zest into the batter after the flour is mixed in.

For a chocolate pound cake, use 1 1/2 cups/180 grams flour instead of 2 cups/240 grams. Add 1/2 cup/42 grams cocoa powder to the flour. I sift cocoa by putting it through a fine strainer. Remember to use unsweetened baking cocoa.

Gently fold 1 scant cup/227 grams chocolate chips to the batter once the flour is mixed in. Milk, semisweet, white, dark: it’s up to you.

Raisins, currants, or other plump dried fruit may be added to the cake. If the fruit is dry, rehydrate it in a little warm water (no more than a tablespoon), or vanilla extract. Pour off any liquid the fruit doesn’t absorb. Don’t add it to the cake batter.

As discussed in the post, Rose Levy Beranbaum recommends baking pound cakes in smaller pans–ideally, 8×4 inch/20x10cm loaf pans. Pound cake batter may also be baked in a 6-inch/15 cm bundt pan, a muffin tin, or a 6-well baking pan. Using these pans will decrease baking times.

Books consulted:

Beranbaum, Rose Levy: The Cake Bible

Byrn, Anne: American Cake

Greenspan, Dorie: Baking from my Home to Yours

Hesser, Amanda: Cooking for Mr. Latte

Lebovitz, David: The Great Book of Chocolate

Lewis, Edna: The Taste of Country Cooking

Ottolenghi, Yotam, with Helen Goh: Sweet