Swedish Almond Visiting Cake

Ingredients

• 3/4 c sugar
• grated zest of 1 lemon (I had about 1 T of zest)
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp almond extract (optional)
• 1 c flour
• 1 stick (8 T) butter, melted and cooled
• 3/4 c unblanched, sliced almonds
• 1 T sugar to sprinkle over the top of the batter

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Butter a 9″ cast-iron frying pan or a 9″ round cake pan.

Put the sugar in a medium bowl; add the lemon zest and rub the sugar and zest together with your fingers.  Whisk in the eggs, one at a time.  Whisk in the salt and the vanilla and almond extract.  With a rubber spatula stir in the flour, then fold in the melted butter. Be sure the butter is incorporated well into the batter.

Put the batter into the pan, smooth the top with a spatula.  Scatter the almonds over the top of the batter and ever-so-lightly press them a teeny bit into the batter, then sprinkle the 1T sugar over the almonds.  Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the cake is golden and nicely browned on the edges.

Let the cake cook on a wire rack – in the pan.  If you try to turn it out onto a cooling rack, you’ll get lots of almonds flying around.