Almond cake, without question, is my favorite thing to do with extra egg whites. I’ve been making gelato lately, which leaves me with four egg whites each time. Of course, you can use them up just cooking eggs (zzzzzzzzz) or making meringues, but I like this idea much better!

Because the chocolate gelato I just made is so deep, dark, cool and chocolatey, a warm slice of almond cake underneath it or on the side balances it out beautifully. Darkness and light, fire and ice, yin and yang…and so on, and so on and scooby-dooby-doo!

This recipe comes from last year’s very tasty calendar of food!

ALMOND CAKE
½ cup butter, melted
1 cup ground, blanched almonds (almond flour)
2/3 cup powdered sugar
¼ cup all-purpose flour
½ tsp. baking powder
4* egg whites
½ tsp. almond extract
pinch salt

*I always made this cake with 5 egg whites; however, it tastes just fine (maybe even better!) with 4, which is the number of egg whites leftover from most of my gelato recipes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Melt butter and set aside. Combine ground almonds with sugar, flour and baking powder. Add egg whites and almond extract and stir. Add melted butter and stir.

Spread batter in buttered 8 x 8″ baking dish. Bake for 25 minutes or till slightly golden and toothpick comes out clean.

I hate to break this to you, but this cake with a scoop of chocolate gelato on top makes a damn fine breakfast. In fact, it was for me today. Let’s hear it for antioxidants and sugar in the mornin’!