Almond Pound Cake Recipe with Raspberry Filling

Preheat oven, position rack in lower third of oven. Grease and lightly flour your pan.

Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Sift onto sheet of waxed paper. Set aside.

Crack eggs into a small bowl. Add the vanilla and whisk briefly, as if to make scrambled eggs.

Place the almond paste in a work bowl of a large heavy-duty mixer.

Using low speed and a flat paddle, break up the almond paste, mixing for 30 seconds. Maintaining the same speed, add sugar. Continue beating on low speed, adding the butter 1 Tb at a time. Stop machine after all of the butter has been added, and scrape down the sides. Increase the speed to medium and cream butter, almond paste and sugar together until mixture is light in color and fluffy, about 4 minutes.

With the mixer still on medium speed, add the eggs, beginning a Tb. at a time and beating until the eggs disappear before adding more. Continue to beat until the mixture appears very fluffy, velvety and white and has increased in volume. Stop beating the batter now.

Using a rubber spatula, add about half of the flour mixture, scraping sides of bowl and mixing well before adding the remaining flour.

Pour batter into the prepared pan and use the spatula to ease the batter a little higher on the sides than in the center.

Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. It is normal for pound cakes to crack along their tops while baking.

Let the cake cool on a rack for 10 minutes. Tip the cake out of the pan, using a thin-bladed knife or spatula to help free it if necessary, and rest right side up on a rack to continue cooling.

When the cake is completely cool, use a long, serrated knife to trim the top of the cake to make it level, if necessary. Cut a V-shaped portion out along the length of the cake. Set both pieces aside.

Heat raspberry preserves in a small heavy saucepan over low heat until they liquefy, then push the preserves through a sieve to remove the seeds, if desired.

Spread the sloping sides of the cut-out V on the cake bottom with raspberry preserves, and replace V-shaped piece.

Wrap in plastic wrap and store at room temperature if serving within 24 hours.

To freeze, cover plastic wrapped cake in foil, and freeze for up to 2 weeks.