There are pros and cons to having a blog.

One of cons is not having as much time to try out new recipes from friends, family and other bloggers. Of course, after researching and testing recipes for years, I absolutely share favorites with you, but I’ve had to ramp up my own personal development of recipes as well for this blog.

That takes a lot of time; time that cuts into making the thousands of recipes I have saved in binders and folders and book shelves, recipes that I’m just dying to try. This Raspberry Almond Cake was no different.

It was sent to me by Cyndi, one of my readers, back in September of last year. She’s the kind of reader any blogger would love to have. She makes my recipes.

She comments on them. She gives great feedback that is both appreciated and valuable to other readers. I mentioned in my anniversary post what it’s like to find a trusted source of recipes, recipes that could be from a cookbook or a friend or a blogger. Whatever the source, you begin to trust that you’ll likely get a good outcome.

Based on Cyndi’s comments and feedback on my recipes, I started to get the sense that we had similar tastes. When I posted my Raspberry White Chocolate Almond Blondies, she mentioned that they reminded her of a cake that she makes and she sent me the recipe.

I couldn’t wait to try it! Yet, there it sat, staring at me from a pile of must try recipes, while LIFE continued to happen and blogging continued to happen.

It only took me, what? Six months? But here it is! I finally made it! It’s really an easy cake to make and with such a wonderful result. This recipe uses almond paste, I used Odense.

You can find it in the baking aisle. It comes in the exact amount that you need for the recipe. (I’m dying to try Love ‘n Bake’s paste. It has such rave reviews, I really want to experiment with some recipes to compare with Odense. Yep. I’ll just add that to the ever growing list :)

I love the smell of almonds. To this day, I love the cherry almond smell of Jergens lotion. At least I think I do. I haven’t used it since I was a kid. I generally only use soaps and lotions that have all natural ingredients, but even in those, if there’s an almond choice? That’s the one I pick.

I adore almond paste in my Shortcut Stollen, so I figured I was just bound to love a cake that was made with almond paste.

The batter mixes up quite easily; it is quite thick as you see in the photos. Then it’s just a matter of layering the batter and berries in your pan. For the top layer of batter, I just dropped spoonfuls all over the top of the berries and didn’t worry about spreading it around.

No issues. Into the oven it went and it baked up beautifully. And it smelled so good while it was baking! (I did end up with some darker edges than I would have liked. My pan has a black coating that causes the cakes I bake in it to bake up darker. I’ve got a lighter pan on my list of things to buy asap!)

The cake isn’t a super fluffy, light and airy cake. It’s lighter than a blondie, denser than a typical cake, but I think definitely more a cake than anything else.

It’s a sturdy cake. It’s moist and you could pick up and eat with your hands without it falling apart. The almond flavor is wonderful and the fresh berries delicious. I can’t wait to try it with other fruits!

My whole family really enjoyed this treat. I think it works well as a dessert cake, a breakfast cake or it could be a lovely choice for a tea. I served it for dessert, without telling anyone what it was, and my son asked me if it was a raspberry almond Christmas cake.

Yep, he recognized all the flavors from the Raspberry White Chocolate Almond Blondies that we make at Christmas each year, which, was basically the reverse experience that my reader Cyndi had when she tried the blondies. If you love those, you’ll love this cake, and vice versa.

So, yeah, there are many pros and cons to having a blog. One of the cons is having so many recipes, so many ideas, yet so little time. But this Raspberry Almond Cake?

Pro. Definitely a pro :)

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