This is an incredibly aromatic tonka cake made with only four ingredients and ready in less than one hour- the perfect cake to serve with a cup of tea or coffee.
A delightful Arabic-style, flourless tonka cake made with ground almonds and bursting with flavor. Dense, moist, and sweet crumb, the taste of almonds, and the intense aroma of the tonka bean... this easy cake will make you perfectly happy.
If you like baking without flour, check out the Pumpkin Almond Flour Bread, the Low-Calorie Brownies, or the Chocolate Almond Bundt Cake.
What is tonka bean?
The tonka beans, also called Tonquin beans, are the seeds of the Kumaro tree, a tree native to South America.
They are black, about as long as a third of a finger, shriveled, and generally not pretty. But what they lack in looks, they make up in aroma; I have never used anything in my kitchen that was more strongly perfumed and utterly amazing.
The fingers of my right hand, holding the bean while grating it, retained the scent for hours, although I had washed my hands several times in between. The whole kitchen smelled of tonka for about two days. Amazing!
They taste sweet and spicy, a bit like a mixture of vanilla, honey, and spices.
So why don’t people use tonka beans more often?
Well, they do if they don’t live in the US. The beans were banned in the USA in the 1950s because they contain coumarin, a toxic chemical compound that might cause damage to the human body when consumed in large quantities. However, you would need to eat about 30 beans to manage to do that to yourself.
Many other spices can do that to you, including pepper and nutmeg, but nobody would manage to eat any of those in such large quantities as to harm themselves.
This tonka cake recipe requires only ½ of a small bean, which will definitely not cause any harm.
What if I can’t get tonka beans?
You can replace them with vanilla and a bit of cardamom, the flavor will be slightly different, but the cake will still taste amazing.
Recipe ingredients
- Half of a very small tonka bean.
- Ground almonds: I used ground almonds that were ground with their skin on; no need for the more expensive blanched ground almonds.
- You can buy already ground almonds or grind the almonds in the food processor. Just be careful not to overmix and turn them into almond butter.
- Four large eggs. Buy medium ones if you live in Germany (where I live).
- Sugar: Granulated sugar for the cake batter and a sprinkle of icing sugar (powdered sugar/confectioner’s sugar) for decoration purposes.
How to make tonka cake?
- Preheat the oven and line the bottom of a springform with parchment paper.
- Eggs: Separate them. Whisk the egg whites until stiff (1).
- Batter: Beat the egg yolks, sugar, and ground almonds in a separate bowl. Add the grated tonka bean and mix well (2).
- Add about ⅓ of the egg whites and fold them in with a spatula (3). Add the rest of the egg whites and fold them in gently and in as few movements as possible (4).
- Bake: Pour the mixture into the prepared springform (5) and bake the tonka bean cake for 25-30 minutes (6).
- Cool in the pan for about half an hour, and turn it onto a wire rack to cool completely (7). Transfer it to a serving platter, and sprinkle it with icing sugar before serving (8).
Expert Tips
- Please use a digital kitchen scale in baking; it guarantees for best result. This tonka bean cake was made using metric measuring (Amazon affiliate link).
- Replace the tonka bean with the seeds of one vanilla bean and ¼ teaspoon of ground cardamom.
- Egg whites: Make sure that the bowl you use for beating them and the beaters of the mixer are squeaky clean with no traces of fat. Otherwise, the egg whites will not get stiff.
- Add the beaten egg whites gradually to the cake batter. Start with about ⅓ of them, and fold them in. This step will loosen the batter, making it easier for you to fold in the remaining beaten egg whites.
Recipe FAQ
No, but its flavor reminds me a bit of vanilla while being spicier and more intensive.
It’s used by chefs on menus in posh, star restaurants, often for making desserts, but not only. They are also used in the tobacco industry.
Add to homemade ice cream, flans, custard cakes, or other kinds of cakes, puddings, or other desserts. They are also great for making gin or tonka cocktails. Always be careful with the dosage, the beans are incredibly flavorful, and you will only need a tiny amount to flavor anything.
Store the tonka cake in an airtight container at room temperature for 3-4 days. It keeps a couple of days longer in the fridge.
More flavorful cakes
Tonka Bean Cake
Equipment
- springform 9 inch/23-24 cm
Ingredients
- 200 g ground almonds 7 oz/ 1 ¾ cup, Note 2
- 150 g granulated sugar 5.5 oz/ ¾ cup
- 4 eggs large, Note 3
- ½ of a very small tonka bean Note 3
- 1 teaspoon icing sugar confectioner’s/powdered sugar, optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F and line the bottom of the springform with parchment paper.
- Separate 4 eggs and whisk the egg whites in a super clean bowl until stiff.
- Make the batter: Beat the egg yolks, 150 g granulated sugar (¾ cup), and 200 g ground almonds (1 ¾ cup) in a separate bowl. Grate half of a tiny tonka bean on top and mix well. Add about ⅓ of the egg whites and fold them in with a spatula. Add the rest of the egg whites and fold them in gently and in as few movements as possible.
- Bake: Pour the batter into the prepared springform and bake for 25-30 minutes.
- Cool in the pan for about half an hour, and turn it onto a wire rack to cool completely. Transfer the cake to a serving platter and sprinkle it with icing sugar before serving.
Notes
- Please use a digital kitchen scale in baking; it guarantees for best result. This tonka bean cake was made using metric measuring (Amazon affiliate link).
- Almonds that were ground with their skin on, not blanched ground almonds or almond flour. You can buy a bag of whole almonds with their brown skin on and grind them in the food processor until they resemble breadcrumbs.
- Eggs: If baking the tonka cake in Germany, please use medium eggs.
- Substitute: If you cannot get a tonka bean, replace it with the seeds of 1 vanilla bean and ¼ teaspoon of ground cardamom.
Anu-My Ginger Garlic Kitchen says
OH. MY. GOD. What a gorgeous looking almond cake. And these sugar flowers on top are just AH-MAZING. Loved it, Adina.
Adina says
Thank you, Anu, this is very nice to hear. 🙂
Thao @ In Good Flavor says
Such a unique cake, Adina. I love it!
Adina says
Thank you, Thao.
Chris Scheuer says
Tonka beans? Wow, you have me intrigued. Your cake is so pretty and sounds wonderful!
Adina says
They are wonderful, the tonka beans. Can't understand why they are forbidden in the US. I would send you some, if I wasn't so afraid to do something illegal. 🙂 🙂
Suzaan says
I think it would really help if you added the part of where the sugar goes in the recipe because I just made it and realised that no where in the recipe it tells you what to do with the sugar and so I just wasted all my ingredients for a bitter cake.
Schatten says
I think you skipped a step with the egg yolks. Shouldn’t we whip them with the sugar until doubled or something? I have nothing but a flat dough and it’s impossible to get this clumpy egg yolk mix to fold nicely with the egg whites. Please be more specific
Adina says
Hi. I didn't skip a step, you should mix the egg yolks as instructed. Then add 1/3 of the egg whites, this step will make the dough wetter/softer/ more manageable. After that you fold in the rest of the whites, they will help the cake rise a little during baking. However, the cake it's flat, it will not rise like a regular cake made with flour and baking powder or soda.