A decadent Polish coffee cake recipe or Tort Migdalowy, with almonds and a sweet and luscious coffee caramel buttercream filling.
This Polish coffee cake is the kind of cake my step father-in-law loves so much. He has a huge sweet tooth and I think he eats cake, fruit yogurt, and whipped cream every day. He is 82 years old, looks and behaves like 60, he has never been ill in all his life, he has a normal weight, he goes hunting regularly, the fittest 82-year-old person I have ever met in my whole life. Despite the fact that 75 % of the food he's eating is sweets... Blessed genes...
If there is one sure way to make Dieter happy is to bake him a cake. The sweeter, the better. Preferably with lots of whipped cream and fruit, but buttercream is always great too. Some of his other favorites are the Chocolate Gateau, the Strawberry Yogurt Cheesecake or the German Apple Almond Cake .
Notes on the recipe
This cake is not particularly difficult to make, but it is also not necessarily for beginners in baking. The original recipe was quite inconvenient, requesting for 3 cake pans (who has 3 cake pans of the same size in the kitchen????), lots of almond blanching, roasting, grounding and chopping and a few ingredients in small quantities, which I did not want to buy.
Things like instant coffee, I buy a jar for a recipe and end up throwing away the rest, months later, because I really don't enjoy drinking instant coffee, and even if I manage to bake some more coffee cakes in between, there is still so much of it leftover.
So, instead of three small cake bases, I only baked a larger one, used already blanched, chopped/ ground almonds, which only needed some short roasting time in a pan, replaced the coffee sort, simplified the method of making the coffee caramel buttercream and soaked the rather dry base with some more coffee.
The resulting Tort Migdalowy was delicious, I cannot imagine it being any better, actually.
Tips
- Use a kitchen scale in baking, it makes things easier and guarantees the best results. Cup measuring is too imprecise especially when baking a more elaborate cake.
- Structure the steps and don't start with something else before you are finished with the previous step.
- You can make the cake base one day in advance, let it cool completely, wrap it in aluminum foil or cling film (so it doesn't dry out), and leave it on the counter until the next day.
- Don't leave the roasting almonds unattended, they can burn very quickly, especially the ground ones.
- You can use instant coffee if you happen to have it. Brew a very strong one for the buttercream.
- Don't lick your fingers and taste the buttercream while mixing it, it might curdle if you do.
- Be careful when handling the hot sugar mixture, it might cause serious burns.
Other Polish cakes and desserts:
Polish Coffee Cake (with Almonds)
Ingredients
- Base:
- 75 g/ 2.6 oz/ ⅔ cup ground almonds
- 220 g/ 7.7 oz/ 1 cup minus 1 ½ tablespoon unsalted butter at room temperature
- 200 g/ 7 oz/ 1 cup sugar
- 4 eggs
- 150 g/ 5.3 oz/ 1 ¼ cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- Topping:
- 100 g/ 3.5 oz/ about 1 cup slivered almonds
- Filling:
- 4 ½ tablespoons ground coffee
- 75 ml/ 2.5 fl.oz/ ⅓ cup water
- 150 g/ 5.3 oz/ ¾ cup sugar
- 6 tablespoons water
- 3 egg yolks
- 220 g/ 7.7 oz/ 1 cup minus 1 ½ tablespoon unsalted butter at room temperature
- 3-4 tablespoons of regular brewed coffee
- Optional:
- 100 ml/ 3.4 fl.oz/ scant ½ cup heavy/double cream
- 1 tablespoon icing sugar
- 1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
- chocolate sprinkles as needed
Instructions
Base:
- Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius/ 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a springform 26 cm/ 10.2 inches and sprinkle it with some flour. Shake to spread the flour all over the form and pat the form on the bottom to remove the excess flour. Do this over the sink.
- Carefully roast the ground almonds, without adding any fat, for a couple of minutes. Keep an eye on the pan and stir often, the almonds will burn easily if unattended. Transfer immediately to a plate and let cool while you mix the batter.
- Mix the soft butter and sugar until light and creamy.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well in between.
- Mix the flour and the baking powder together and sieve them over the egg mixture.
- Add the roasted almonds and incorporate.
- Pour the batter into the prepared springform and bake in the preheated oven for about 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Leave the cake in the pan for about 5-10 minutes, then transfer it to a wire rack and let it cool completely.
- You can bake the cake one day in advance, let it cool, wrap in cling film and fill it the next day.
- In the meantime roast the slivered almonds, stirring often and keeping an eye on them. They should be golden brown. Immediately transfer to a plate and let cool.
Coffee buttercream:
- Brew the coffee. Place the ground coffee into a cup and pour the boiling water over it. Allow to infuse while you prepare the rest. Make another small cup of regular coffee, you will need a few tablespoons for soaking the cake base. Drink the rest.
- Place the sugar and the water into a small heavy bottom saucepan. Heat until the sugar dissolves and the mixture starts to simmer and then let simmer for 3 minutes. Careful not to burn yourself with the sugar.
- Place the egg yolks into a mixing bowl. Slowly pour the sugar syrup into the mixture while mixing all the time until the mixture thickens.
- Cream the butter until light and fluffy. Slowly add the sugar-egg mixture while mixing all the time.
- Sieve the thick coffee over the bowl. Discard the coffee rests. Mix well.
- Slice the cake once. Place one slice on a serving platter. Soak it with 3 or 4 tablespoons of the regular coffee.
- Spread half of the buttercream on the first slice and top with the second slice. Spread the rest of the buttercream on top and sprinkle the roasted slivered almonds all over the top of the cake.
Optional:
- Beat the heavy cream shortly. Add icing sugar and unsweetened cocoa powder and continue beating until stiff.
- Spread the whipped cream on the sides of the cake and sprinkle with chocolate sprinkles.
Angie@Angie's Recipes says
Wish I could have a slice now! Love that it's loaded with almonds 🙂
Adina says
I love the almonds in the cake too, Angie. 🙂
Natalie says
This cake looks so good! I love the flavors combination!
Adina says
Thank you, Natalie.
Parth Rathod says
almond and cake both are my favorite and this cake both of them
thank you for sharing
Adina says
I love almonds in cakes too. Thanks. 🙂
Anca says
The cake looks lovely. I'm sure I would like it.
P.S. I'm going to surprise you, but I have 3 same-size baking trays. :))
Adina says
🙂 🙂 I only have two of 26 cm and two of 20 cm, but all the rest only one of each... 🙂
deepika says
This cake does look delicious
thank you for sharing
Adina says
Thank you. 🙂
Monica says
Gorgeous cakes. I love all almond bakes. And may your step father in law continue to enjoy all the sweets! Sounds wonderful.
Adina says
Thank you, Monica.
grace says
i would LOVE this! it certainly is spectacular. i hope my sweet tooth keeps me going into my 80s! 🙂
Adina says
🙂 🙂
Rae says
Adina, I have been reading your blog for about a year now, and I find it such a welcoming place to be. Your cakes are so beautiful! This one really caught my eye as I think my husband would love it! A couple of questions, if you'd be so kind to help - Is ground almonds the same as almond flour? And in the optional ingredients/topping (I think) it calls for 100 ml or scant 1/2 cup - I'm assuming it's cream, but it doesn't say. Thank you for sharing such a wonderful variety of recipes!
Adina says
Hi Rae,
So nice to read your comment. Thank you. ☺ Yes, cream for the topping. Sorry about that, I feel that I read a recipe 20 times before posting it, but still I miss something sometimes. We only have the term ground almonds in Germany, but I did a bit of search online and almond flour seems to be pretty much the same thing only made of blanched almonds which do not have their brown skin anymore . You can use that or ground your own almonds in the food processor. Not too long though or they will turn into almond butter. I hope you will like the cake!
Rae says
Thank you for such a quick response and checking on that for me?