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By Sarah Condley

Columnist

Don’t you always wonder about the recipes printed on the containers or packaging of the products you buy? Well, I sure do, and sometimes I keep the recipes to try someday.

We were going to take supper to our son, Daniel and his family. They were struggling to get over the aftereffects of COVID when our newest grandson caught a virus at daycare, and we wanted to do something to help them out, which for me means cooking or baking.

For the dessert part of the meal, I wanted to bake something that didn’t require a lot of effort, didn’t make a large amount and didn’t require that I go to the grocery store to purchase ingredients. I sifted through a couple of the folders I have, which organize all the recipes I’ve cut out, written down, and saved over the years. I stumbled upon a recipe that was printed on the underside of the Land O’ Lakes butter box. You know, the box that a pound of butter is packaged in. The recipe was for an Almond Brickle Coffee Cake. This recipe checked off all the boxes – easy to put together, only made a single layer 9-inch cake and all ingredients were in our pantry.

I made the coffee cake the night before we were going to take the meal to our son. After greasing and flouring the cake pan, I set it aside while putting the batter together. The recipe says to scrape the sides of the bowl during the mixing process. I had to do this because the batter was so stiff it kept riding up the side of the bowl and getting caught up in the mixer beaters. It was some of the thickest coffee cake batter I think I’ve ever dealt with. Finally, the batter was thoroughly combined, and I had to scoop it out of the bowl and spread it in the pan with a spatula, not pouring it into the pan.

Once I was satisfied that half the batter was in the baking dish, I sprinkled half of the almonds I’d toasted over the top, along with half of the toffee bits (I used plain toffee bits, not the ones with chocolate on them). Scraping the bowl to ensure I got all the batter out and into the pan took a couple of minutes since the batter was so stiff, and then I gently spread that batter over the “streusel” filling. As the final step, I sprinkled the remaining almonds and toffee bits on the top.

The cake went into the preheated oven, and I set the timer. At the 30-minute mark, I tested the cake for doneness, and it needed to bake a little longer, three minutes longer.

Once the cake was out of the oven, I let it cool for ten minutes and then turned it out onto a cooling rack to finish cooling.

When the cake was completely cool, I sat it on a cake stand and stirred the glaze ingredients together. The recipe directions for the glaze said one or two teaspoons of milk. Since I wanted the glaze to be pourable, I used two teaspoons. After drizzling the glaze over the cake, I covered it with the dome lid, and it was all set for the next day.

Before leaving for our son’s house, I cut a few pieces for us to keep at home. I knew Daniel and Katelyn would mind because they try to have only a few sweets around the house. They are like me, if it’s there, they will eat it, and they are both trying to reduce their sugar intake.

We drove to their house and delivered the food but only left after getting a little grandson love. The next day I texted Daniel and asked what they thought about the coffee cake. He said they thought it was slightly dry, but they enjoyed it. After Brad and I tried the cake, we agreed with them about the dryness. I don’t think it was from overbaking since I’d tested the cake and removed it from the oven when a toothpick inserted in the center came out clean. I liked the almond flavor of this cake almond is one of my favorite flavors, so much so that it was the flavor of our wedding cake; however, I could not taste the toffee. The toffee bits had melted into the cake and there was no hint of that flavor.

While I liked the almond flavor of this cake, I’m not keeping this recipe because it just didn’t meet my expectations. And because it was a bit dry and lacked the toffee flavor, I’m going to go with Failed It.

Almond Brickle Coffee Cake

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup sugar

• 1/2 cup Land O Lakes Unsalted Butter, softened

• 2 eggs

• 1 teaspoon almond extract

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

• 3/4 cup Land O’Lakes Sour Cream

• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder

• 2/4 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Streusel

• 1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted

• 1/4 cup almond toffee bits

Glaze

• 1/4 cup powdered sugar

• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract

• 1 to 2 teaspoons milk

Instructions

• Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour 9×9 inch round cake pan; set aside.

• Combine sugar, butter, eggs, almond extract and vanilla in large bowl.  Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy.  Add all remaining coffee cake ingredients; mix well.

• Spread half of batter into prepared pan; sprinkle 2 tablespoons almonds and 2 tablespoons toffee bits over batter.  Spread remaining batter over streusel filling; sprinkle with remaining almonds and toffee bits.  Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool 10 minutes; remove from pan.  Cool completely.

• Stir together all glaze ingredients in small bowl.  Drizzle over cooled coffee cake.