Swedish Almond Cake (Toscakaka)

This Swedish Almond Cake, also known as Toscakaka or Tosca Cake combines a butter sponge cake with caramelized almond flakes on top. This Scandinavian recipe is an ideal coffee cake to serve alongside a cup of coffee or tea for Fika.

What is Toscakaka?

One of the best European cakes is Toscakaka, also known as a traditional Swedish Almond Cake, is a traditional Scandinavian dessert that combines a moist vanilla sponge cake base with a caramelized almond topping for a delicious cake.

Ingredients and subsitutions for Swedish Almond Cake

• Butter: Room temperature unsalted butter was used here, but salted is fine as a substitute too. You could try substituting with non dairy butter, but I cannot guarantee the result.
• Sugar: The superfine or caster sugar adds sweetness without additional flavors to our cake batter whilst the light brown sugar helps to create the texture and flavor in our golden topping. You could substitute with a mix of light and dark brown sugar, though the flavors in the cake and topping would likely be different.
• Eggs: Room temperature eggs add structure to the cake and bind everything together so are essential.
• Flour: Plain or all purpose flour is best because it gives our cake a nice light crumb. You could substitute with self rising flour, however, will need to omit the baking powder.
• Almond meal: Ground almonds or almond flour might be what you refer to as what is called almond meal here. Finely ground almonds create a beautiful and soft texture to our cake.
• Baking powder: This helps the cake rise for a light crumb and avoid a stodgy result.
• Sliced almonds: The sliced almonds help compliment the light almond flavor in the cake and finish our cake with a beautiful rustic appearance. If you cannot source the almonds or don't eat them, you could substitute with flaked coconut, though this would likely change the taste of the cake.

See recipe card for quantities.

How to make Swedish Almond Cake:

Step 1: Whip it: Beat the butter until pale and fluffy.

Step 2: Sugar baby: Beat in the sugar until very pale and fluffy, before adding one egg at a time and whipping, repeating until all eggs are whipped into the butter.

Step 3: Dry ingredients: Sift the flour, ground almonds and baking powder into the egg mixture.

Step 4: Fold it and pour: Fold the dry ingredients through until the cake batter is smooth. Pour into the cake tin and smooth out.

Step 5: Bake: Bake it until golden and a skewer comes out clean.

Step 6: Cara-me-lize: Place all the topping ingredients into a saucepan on medium until simmering and thickened, spooning on top and smoothing out.

Step 7: Bake: Place into the preheated oven and bake until golden brown.

Step 8: Whilst warm: While the cake is still warm, lightly press the edges of the cake with a skewer to free from the tin and unclip.

Step 9: Slice and serve: Slice it up and serve with a dollop or two cream. Enjoy!

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Swedish Almond Cake (Toscakaka)

Sylvie Taylor

This Swedish Almond Cake, also known as Toscakaka. This recipe combines a moist vanilla sponge cake base with a generous layer of caramelized almonds on top for an ideal snack cake.

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr

Total Time 1 hour hr 20 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine Swedish

Servings 10

Calories 539 kcal

Ingredients

  

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Cake

• 110 grams / 3.8 ounces butter room temperature
• 200 grams / ¾ cup + 2 tablespoons superfine/caster sugar
• 220 grams / 4 large eggs room temperature
• 80 grams / ½ cup plain flour
• 200 grams / 2 cups + 1 teaspoon almond flour
• 4 grams / 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon sea or kosher salt

Topping

• 125 grams / 4.4 ounces butter
• 100 grams / ½ cup light brown sugar
• ½ teaspoon sea or kosher salt
• 60 grams / ¼ cup milk
• 200 grams / 1 ½ cups flaked almonds

Instructions

 

• Preheat your oven to 180°C/350F and line a 20 cm or 8 inch round cake tin with parchment paper.

Cake

• Place the butter in a bowl and beat on medium until light and fluffy, approximately 3 minutes.
• Add the sugar and beat for a further 5 minutes until combined and fluffy.
• Add in one egg at a time and beat until combined, approximately 1 minute per egg.
• In a separate bowl, sift the flour, almond flour, baking powder and salt. Add to the butter mixture and fold until combined.
• Pour into the cake tin and spread out evenly. Bake for 50 minutes.

Topping

• Meanwhile, place the butter, sugar, salt, milk and flaked almonds in a saucepan on medium heat until the butter has melted, sugar has dissolved and the mixture has thickened, approximately 5 minutes.
• Spread the caramelized almond mixture over the cake evenly and return to the oven for a further 10 minutes until golden.
• Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes.
• Carefully remove the cake from the tin and let the cake cool fully on a wire rack.
• Slice and serve with lightly whipped cream.
• Dig in!

Video

Notes

• Almond meal: Ground almonds or almond flour might be what you refer to as what is called almond meal here. Finely ground almonds create a beautiful and soft texture to our cake.
• Slivered almonds: The slivered almonds help compliment the light almond flavor in the cake and finish our cake with a beautiful rustic appearance. If you cannot source the almonds or don't eat them, you could substitute with flaked coconut, though this would likely change the taste of the cake.
• Don't skip whipping that butter: Whipping the butter allows as much air to be mixed in which results in the overall light spongy texture in the cake, you won't want to skip this step!
• A springform cake tin is best here: You will want to remove the cake from the tin whilst still warm otherwise the caramelized almond topping will stick to the tin and make it incredibly difficult to remove once it has cooled which means unclipping the springform tin is a better choice here.
• Cake tin: A round cake springform cake tin was a 20cm or 8 inches used here. It is not recommended to use a cake tin larger than 23cm's or 9 inches due to the height of the cake being much thinner and the caramelized almond layer potentially not spreading across the entire surface.
• Loose almonds: If any of the almonds come free whilst you're removing the cake tin, press them firmly back onto the cake and the sticky warmth will hold them in place as the cake cools.

Adapted from Swedish Food

Nutrition

Calories: 539kcal

Keyword cake, fall dish, snack cake

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