Pumpkin Almond Squares
Any almond flavored dessert will always always be a favorite of mine, then of course fall comes in and everything under the sun is pumpkin spiced, so why not marry both flavors and create a beautiful dessert?!
These Pumpkin Almond Squares are moist and sweet and have the perfect balance of mild almond flavors with the warmth of the pumpkin spice. The almond element in this dessert is a smooth sweet almond cake batter that gets baked into the pumpkin cake. Parts of the almond batter sink to the bottom, parts of it stay on the top. The almond is swirled into the pumpkin cake creating a beautiful mix of both flavors and textures.
Welcome these Pumpkin Almonds Squares into your fall dessert repertoire!
Let me show you how I make these Pumpkin Almond Squares:
For the pumpkin cake:
Preheat the oven to 350º.
In a large bowl, melt 2 sticks of butter.
Let the butter cool down a bit so its not hot to the touch, it’s ok for it to be warm.
Add the brown sugar to the butter and using a whisk, mix well until the sugar granules are almost completely dissolved.
Tip! Mixing the butter and sugar well will make the cake more stable when it’s baking.
Add the egg and egg yolk and mix well into the butter and sugar mixture.
Add the vanilla, pumpkin pure and almond extract. Mix well.
In a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, salt and pumpkin pie spice.
Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredient mixture.
Mix in the dry ingredients until barely combined.
Tip! Do not over mix. Over mixing will create a dense cake because it over develops the gluten in the flour.
Set the pumpkin cake batter aside.
For the almond cake batter:
Add the almond flour, the egg, condensed milk, melted butter (1/3 cup) and the almond extract to a large bowl. Mix well.
Mix the ingredients until they are well combined.
Assembling the cake:
Line a pan with parchment paper. Spray the parchment paper with non stick spray.
Pour the pumpkin cake batter into the parchment paper lined baking pan.
Spread the batter so that it is evenly distributed and the top is as even as possible.
Pour the almond batter over the pumpkin cake batter as evenly as possible.
Tip! Make sure the corners are evenly spread as well.
Sprinkle the almonds on top of the almond cake batter.
Bake the cake for 50 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean when inserted in the middle.
Allow the cake to cool for at least 30 minutes before serving.
Tip! If un-molded too early, the cake can crumble and not be able to cut into clean squares.
I love serving this as a dessert, or with coffee during a cold fall/winter afternoon. Enjoy!
Pumpkin Almond Cake Squares
Equipment
- 2 large mixing bowls
- 1 sift
- 1 smaller bowl
- whisk
- spatula
- 1 8×8 metal baking pan
Ingredients
For the pumpkin cake batter:
- 2 sticks unsalted butter melted
- 1 whole large egg room temperature
- 1 egg yolk room temperature
- 1 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 cup pumpkin pure
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
For the almond cake batter:
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 1 cup condensed milk
- 1/3 cup melted butter
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
- 1/3 cup sliced almonds
Instructions
For the pumpkin batter:
- Preheat the oven to 350º.
- In a large bowl, melt 2 sticks of butter.
- Let the butter cool down a bit so its not hot to the touch, it's ok for it to be warm.
- Add the brown sugar to the butter and using a whisk, mix well until the sugar granules are almost completely dissolved.
- Add the egg and egg yolk and mix well into the butter and sugar mixture.
- Add the vanilla, pumpkin pure and almond extract. Mix well.
- In a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, salt and pumpkin pie spice.
- Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredient mixture.
- Using a spatula, mix in the dry ingredients until barely combined.
- Set the pumpkin cake batter aside.
For the almond cake batter:
- In a large bowl, mix the melted butter, almond flour, the egg, condensed milk and the almond extract.
- Mix the ingredients until they are well combined.
Assembling the cake:
- Line a pan with parchment paper. Spray the parchment paper with non stick spray.
- Pour the pumpkin cake batter into the parchment paper lined baking pan.
- Spread the batter so that it is evenly distributed and the top is as even as possible.
- Pour the almond batter over the pumpkin cake batter as evenly as possible.
- Sprinkle the almonds on top of the almond cake batter.
- Bake the cake for 50 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean when inserted in the middle.
- Let the cake cool for at least 20 minutes before removing from the pan.
- Cut the cake in even squares.
- ENJOY!