Toasted Almonds & Cinnamon Cake

I spent a lazy Sunday at my parents place, or so I wished I would, but Ma was in her 'Sunday Baking Mode' absolutely enthusiastic and full of energy.
After an absolutely punjabi awesome Aloo Parantha-Pickle-Dahi lunch, snoozing and chatting up with dad was the only thing I was capable of. But ma and pa had other plans and before I knew I was in the kitchen whisking away the eggs. Convincing me to cook something is one of the easiest things to do. The baker in me always wins and there I was helping ma with her Toasted Almond and Cinnamon Cake.

It is one of the best non-icing cakes I've ever had. She made it for the first time, this year on my birthday.
Dad found a basic pound cake recipe on the net, and, with cinnamon being the hottest and latest flavour of the season in our household (ma these days makes almost everything with cinnamon - cinnamon tea, cinnamon hot coffee, cinnamon cold coffee) even the cake had to be cinnamon. To balance the sweet spicy flavour of cinnamon, it needed some nuts and dad always likes almonds more than walnuts even in his brownies. So they decided to add their 2 favourite igredients to the cake......Cinnamon and Almonds which were toasted.
This is my favourite cake anytime of the day (including early morning) with my hot cup of coffee.
So here goes the recipe:

Toasted Almonds and Cinnamon Cake

Ingredients:

2 cups All purpose flour
5 Eggs
1 1/2 cups Sugar (powdered after measuring)
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 1/2 tsp Cinnamon Powder
3/4 cup Oil or about 80 g of butter
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
3/4 cup Almonds toasted and chopped (dust them with a little flour - this helps them to not sink at the bottom of the cake)
Loaf Tin or a Round Cake tin (whatever shape you prefer)

Directions

1. Line the loaf tin with parchment.


2. Sieve together the flour, baking powder and cinnamon powder.


3. Cream the oil or butter with the powdered sugar.


4. Separate Eggs


5. Add Vanilla Essence to the yolks and keep aside.


6. Whisk the egg whites till soft peaks are formed. Add the yolks, whisk again. Now add the creamed oil-sugar mixture in batches. Once blended well, fold in the flour mixture gently with a wooden spatula.


7. Lastly fold in the toasted almonds, saving a few to sprinkle on the top.


8. Pour in the loaf tin and bake in a preheated oven at 180 degree centigrade for 45-50 minutes.

I'm someone who diggs hot cakes, but this cakes tastes better after it completely cools down. Give it a day and it'll be even better. The flavours mature.

Happy baking !!