Island Delight Almond Cake

Sweet Delight!

With Easter just around the corner, I needed to create a truly delicious desert. My Island Delight Almond Cake is the perfect holiday dessert. I made a bunch of mini cakes for my mom and aunt, and I created a bundt version for myself.

It is very important that your ingredients are room temperature. I allowed my butter and cream cheese to sit out about 8 hours. You want all the ingredients to incorporate well, and room temperature ingredients is the key.

After mixing everything together, I lightly dusted the drained, dried, pineapple and the coconut in a little flour. If you notice my batter is not fully mixed, I like to under mix the batter, and then use my spatula to finish mixing the batter, to prevent our cake from being over-mixed and tough.

I double glaze the cake, then I top it with almonds. I have a little secret for you, sometimes I add almonds to the glaze, then add extra almonds on top. Talking about DELICIOUS!

Look at it, moist, sweet, and delicious! Don't be like me, make the cake in advance, and try to wait overnight before cutting. The cake gets better and better everyday that it sits. Not that I would know this, but my momma told me so. My cake have never lasted that long.

Island Delight Almond Cake

Ingredients:

3 c. sugar
3 c. flour
2 sticks butter, room temperature
1 8oz. pack Philadelphia Cream Cheese, room temperature
1/2 c. vegetable oil
6 eggs, room temperature
1 c. pineapple juice
1 c. crushed pineapple, drained, patted dry
1 c. coconut, shredded
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. vanilla
Almond glaze (recipe below)

For the Glaze:

1 stick butter, room temperature
1 8oz. pack Philadelphia Cream Cheese, room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla
3 c. confectioners sugar
1 c. coconut, shredded
1/4 c. heavy cream to thin, more if needed
1-2 c. sliced almonds to top cake

Directions:

Pre heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a 9 inch bundt or tube pan and set aside. In a mixer add butter, cream cheese and sugar, beat well for about 4 minutes. Add vanilla and vegetable oil and mix well for about 30 seconds. Add eggs one at a time beating 15 seconds between each addition.

In a separate bowl add flour, salt and baking powder, mix well. Add flour and pineapple juice to egg/cream mixture in 3 batches ending with flour. Beat 20 seconds between each addition. Do not over mix.

Take coconut and crushed pineapple, toss in about 1-2 tablespoons of flour, add to cake batter and mix for about 20 seconds. Add mixture to prepared bundt pan and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes to 1 hour and 25 minutes are until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Allow cake to rest about 5 minutes in pan, flip out onto a platter and allow to cool about 20 minutes. Top with first coating of glaze and allow to cool about 20 minutes, top with second coasting of glaze and sprinkle almonds all over the cake, allow to rest overnight if you can stand it. Enjoy!

To prepare the glaze, mix butter and cream cheese for about 2 minutes, add vanilla and sugar,  coconut and drizzle with heavy cream while mixing until desired consistency is reached.