Almond Cardamom Cake
Hello!
When we were last together, the sun was high in the sky with the heat smothering us. Today, I write this next to an open window, cold air drifting in, bringing with it a faint scent of fall. The change is welcome but, if I am being honest, the shifting season and impending school year leaves me on edge. With three kids and a business with a dozen employees, I am quite familiar with transition.
In the past year since Covid entered our lives, Bakeshop has been on a fast track for survival. We have shifted and pivoted with the best of them — adding online ordering platforms, adding a weekly newsletter that includes a special item developed and executed for our newsletter subscribers, adding nationwide shipping to our repertoire to expand our reach, adding a take-away wine library. We have reopened our retail doors each weekend and continue to expand our list of wholesale clients as they have also reopened their doors. Day in and day out, we strive to provide the very best, most consistent service and pastries that we possibly can.
But several mitigating factors, personal and professional, are now in effect that are going to make some changes necessary, as we steam toward the holidays we are going to get busier with special and pastry and pie orders. We are already bursting at the seams, however, trying to find new staff members committed to the same standard of excellence and pride that we stand for. And we are still working in small groups to try to remain as safe as possible.
One of these changes means that we can no longer make challah, and therefore will not be open to the public on Fridays as we had hoped. Another is that I can no longer commit to the production time it takes me personally to make a special Secret Item every week. So for now, I am going to do one every other week. And for some of those weeks I will be bringing back some crowd favorites - think babka, creamssant, double crusted seasonal pies and more. Hopefully, those of you who constitute our faithful base will continue to support us with your orders even on those weeks when there is no Secret Item. We will however still attempt at least to send out a newsletter every Tuesday, sometimes just updating you or apprising you of stories from the bakery, and what is going on behind the scenes of Bakeshop.
Without further ado, this weekend we are making my favorite snack cake that I developed years ago during my time in restaurants but have yet to introduce to the bakery...Almond Cardamom Cake! It’s a favorite of mine for a few reasons. First, it’s baking magic; a gorgeous batter that separates during the mix and emulsifies over and over again, rising high in the pan as it bakes then collapses into a delicate crumb. Second, this is the perfect foil between summer and fall - an intensely flavored almond cake using both a premium paste and natural almond meal, made with rich European butter and laced with the warm scent and flavor of cardamom. Lastly, it’s the kind of cake that sits on your counter, and which you find yourself coming back to again and again for yet one more sliver. A simple cake that can be served anytime of the day, especially my favorite time…breakfast!
As always, my team and I thank each of you for your continued support of our craft.
Best,