After a few attempts at baking macarons, my refrigerator still holds a good supply of almond flour.  How to use it?  How about some Italian almond cake?  This rich, dense cake uses ground almonds instead of flour, making it gluten-free.  The seven eggs make it even richer.

Unfortunately, the recipe calls for a 9-10 inch springform pan.  I didn’t realize that my springform pan is only 8 inches.  This caused an unanticipated problem.  The cake was supposed to finish baking in about 30-40 minutes.  After 50 minutes, a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake was still coming out with uncooked dough attached.

The cake was so deep that it wasn’t cooking through!

I finally gave up and pulled the cake out of the oven at an hour and ten minutes.  After letting it cool, I sliced it open and, sure enough, the center was still very dense and not entirely cooked.  The outside edge was a bit overdone.

Serving it up with some fresh mango, the cake was still tasty, but I had to eat around the undercooked part.  I’ll have to try an alternate recipe, maybe one that makes use of a little flour.  I’ll also have to either not fill the pan so high or will need to buy a larger springform pan.