Almond Grated Cake with Jam

This is a tea cake perfection -recipe! I remember my mom making these often.  It was so easy for her, but anything she baked looked easy when she did it.  I usually preferred she make something chocolate though.  Oh - but- these bars were so good with tea.  And we had tea all day - everyday.  

I do remember that if we didn't eat them in one day, they would get hard the next day and I like my desserts to melt in my mouth.  So I substituted a few cups of all purpose flour with almond flour and they are pretty much my favorite "grated cake" that I've had.   Moist, crumbly, delicious  

Here's the recipe 

• 3.5 sticks (500grams) of butter (butter is not always bad you guys) 
• 3 large eggs 
• 1.5 cups sugar ( I used raw sugar) 
• 3 cups all purpose flour (sift ) or all purpose GF flour
• 3 cups almond flour (sift) 
• 1 tsp almond extract 
• 1 tsp baking soda and 1 Tbs vinegar 
• jam - I like a thick layer of jam, so - I used a jar that was about 12 oz. 

Sift the flours. Cube the butter and beat it on high with a mixer until smooth.  Add sugar and beat till light and fluffy about 2 min, scrapping the sides.  Add eggs - one at a time and beat for about 2 min.  Add the almond extract and baking soda/vinegar.  With the baking soda and vinegar - hold a spoon or a small dish with the baking soda over the mixing bowl, then pour the vinegar over the baking soda- it will fizz up. As the fizzing reaction happens, mix the baking soda and vinegar and pour it in.  Beat the mixture for another half minute and turn to low. Mix in the sifted flours.  Take a fourth of the dough and add a table spoon of all purpose flour to it.  Wrap in parchment paper and let freeze up a bit in the freezer - this will make the dough easier to grate later.  Put the rest of the dough in the fridge for about an hour. 

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.  Spread the refrigerated dough on the bottom of the pan.  As you will see on the pictures, I used three different jams to see which one I like best.  I like to stick to a tart one because the sweetness of the cake and the almond flavor go really well with a tart jam- in my opinion.  Spread a thick layer of jam.  Once the dough in the freezer is frozen enough to grate, grate it right above the cake. Do this pretty fast because the dough will melt and it gets hard to grate.  

Bake in a preheated oven on 360 degrees for about 35 min.  Or until it's golden brown.  Once it's all backed and smelling amazing, let it rest in the cookie sheet while you make a cup of tea and cut in! do sprinkle powdered sugar on top.  AND these will be amazing GF! 

 so good.