Inspired by a simple cake from a coffee shop in Bordeaux, this caramel almond cake is super moist and lightly sweetened. With a crunchy caramelized almond topping and a simple crumb, it’s perfect for pairing with a morning espresso.

Guys, this recipe has been two years in the making and it is finally here! It was actually supposed to be next week’s new recipe, but I just could not keep it to myself any longer so some things were shuffled and here we are!

It all started two years ago on our European adventure, in a tiny little coffee shop in Bordeaux. We had a pretty full day planned visiting Cite du Vin, the world’s largest wine museum, and decided to pop into a coffee shop for a cappuccino and a bite of breakfast before catching the train. The narrow cafe was almost completely empty when we stepped inside. A countertop ran down one side of the wall, piled with espresso machines, cash registers, coffee cups, and the usual coffee-shop necessities. A long bench lined the opposite wall and two or three wooden tables sat perched in front of it. We ordered our cappuccinos and a little slice of cake from the glass case and sat side by side along the bench, snacking on cake and attempting to read a French newspaper.

I’m not exactly sure why this particular cake stuck with me the way that it did. I had a whole notebook filled with dessert notes from that trip and if you were to just look at the notes, this cake wouldn’t stand out as anything spectacular. It was simple. Maybe it was the simplicity, or the way it paired with a cup of strong espresso, or how well executed the flavors were, but I have not been able to get it out of my head for two years.

the perfect caramel almond snack cake

For this cake, I veered ever so slightly from my original inspiration in a couple of ways.

First, no loaf. I’ve made a bunch of loaf cakes on the blog recently and was feeling a bit loafed-out so we went with a simple round cake. Very classic.

Second, if you look at the picture of the original, you can see it had a really dense, tight crumb making it a pretty hefty slice of cake. This was definitely not a bad thing, but I wanted something a tiny bit lighter.

I dug through a trove of recipes online and in cookbooks and decided to adapt a yogurt-loaf cake from Marti Buckley’s Basque Country cookbook for my cake base. When I’d asked the woman at the coffee shop about this cake, she replied that it was a “traditional french caramel cake”. Since then, I’ve done a lot of Googling and have had trouble narrowing down this specific type (a lot of French almond cakes are exceptionally light with whipped egg whites and this one was definitely not that) so I decided to go regional. Bordeaux is in the Southeastern corner of France and while it is not technically in the Basque region, it is quite close. This cake was also really simple and rustic, like most desserts out of the Basque region, so I thought this was a good place to start.

The topping is made similarly to a flan or fruit-based upside down cake. A simple caramel is poured into the bottom of the pan and topped with slivered almonds. The cake batter goes on top and the whole thing is inverted after it has been baked.

This cake stores beautifully in the fridge for 4 or 5 days and pairs so well with a strong cup of espresso. You might even feel like you’ve taken a little trip to the French countryside.