Ok, Burro, yesterday Mrs. Cone whipped up two cakes for her nerd herd. Why two, because her little men are not big fans of the one cake. Clearly, I'm not the only one who is spoiled. Anyway, to encourage baking by both sexes, here is the recipe for what she made me. I figure, what with the weekend coming up, this might make a nice father/daughter project. And I hope it has the side benefit of letting you know that I didn't take anything in our discussion personally; and I hope you didn't either.
Dead Lady's Almond cake (ya, this is what it's called, long story, I'll elaborate at the bottom for those that are interested)
Ingredients:
CAKE TOPPING
3/4 C. melted butter 1 tlbs. sugar; the "sparkling" kind if you have it
1 1/2 C. sugar 4 oz. sliced almonds
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 1/2 c. flour
Ok, here we go. Beat the eggs and sugar together while you melt the butter. Let the butter cool a little, then slowly add it to the egg/sugar mix. Be careful here, because if you mix the melted butter in too fast and/or the butter is too hot (especially too hot) you'll get scrambled (i.e.cooked) eggs, in which case you have to go back to square one.
Add all the other "cake" ingredients and mix. Mrs. Cone does this by hand, but I assume a mixer would be fine too. The batter goes into a greased 8 or 9 inch square pan. Toss the "topping" ingredients on top and then it's into a preheated 350 degree (Fahrenheit) oven for 30 minutes.
Ideally, it's best served warm with a glass of milk. Yum, Yum!
We call it "Dead Lady's Almond Cake" because it was a closely held family secret until someone "publicly" let the cat out of the bag from the great beyond when she willed it to all female Cones, not just those related by blood. Big brew-ha-ha in my family. And quite funny too, from a certain perspective.
Enjoy.