Almond and Maca Cake with Blueberries

February 25, 2019 SouthAmerica

I am proud of this cake- we wanted to create a new recipe using Maca and came upon the great combination with almond flour. These two ingredients go very well together. Almonds were once considered a symbol of fertility by the ancient Romans, and Maca from the Peruvian Andes is believed to elevate energy and libido, I like to think of it as a natural energy source. Aside from people’s beliefs we know now that almond flour is a healthier option, and we are lucky to find this ingredient just about anywhere in U.S. stores now. Maca on the other hand used to be very expensive but to our surprise now it is available at Costco stores; the package is Raw Maca-organic-from World Gourmet, Product of Peru.

Maca is a tuber native of central Peru. It is similar to turnip, but is native of the Andes and is now considered a super-food thanks to its richness in fiber and healthy fats. Maca has a very distinct flavor that some people do not like, this is another reason why I decided to add Almond extract to this cake in a way to disguise the Maca flavor but still get its benefits.

As printed on the packaging of this Raw Maca: “Maca comes in three different color categories, each with slightly different attributes. World Gourmet is one of the few brands to blend yellow, red and black Maca into one bag, so you can enjoy the best foods the world has to offer.” Indeed we did.

I wanted to create a nutritious cake thus combining Almond flour with Maca and topping it with blueberries works out well. The mix of almond flour and maca makes for a very dry cake, but adding the blueberries makes it moist and delicious. Also this cake is dairy free, I like to serve it with a Syllabub but this could be easily substituted.

I will invite our readers to give this cake a try and enjoy it with either a good cup of coffee or a cup of tea.

For this cake you need a 9-inch springform pan.

Ingredients:

1 cup of super-fine sugar

4 egg yolks

¼ cup almond milk

1 cup almond flour

½ cup raw Maca powder

4 egg whites

½ tsp. Vanilla extract

½ tsp. baking powder

1 tbsp. Almond extract

½ tsp. Cinnamon

1 6oz. Fresh blueberries package

Preparation:

In a bowl mix all the dry ingredients the almond flour, the Maca powder, the baking powder, and set aside.

In a stand-up mixer (or you can do this by hand) whip the yolks and the sugar until creamy, then add the almond milk and blend until the sugar is completely dissolved. To this add the cinnamon, vanilla extract, and almond extract. Then slowly start adding the dry mix while simultaneously adding one egg white at a time until fully incorporated.

Pour the mix into the pan, and then drop the blueberries on top; add as many as you like. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30-35 minutes.

This cake pairs very well with an orange-Cointreau Syllabub for recipe go to our old post “The history of Syllabub and Pisco Syllabub” and substitute the Pisco for Cointreau and the lime for one orange zest plus one tablespoon of orange juice.

Enjoy!