Swedish Visiting Cake

Ah, my first blog post.  This one is on Swedish visiting cake; I was in the mood to make some kind of homemade cake, and I found this recipe.  It's by no means a 'healthy' recipe - it has a whole stick of butter and a cup of sugar - but it's goooood.  And my version probably isn't too authentic, because I skipped adding the lemon zest and almond extract.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 8 TBSP (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1/4 cup sliced almonds
• Grated zest of 1 lemon (I can't stand lemons, so I skipped this)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Butter a 9 inch pan or a cupcake tin; set aside.  
2. Pour the sugar into a medium sized bowl.  Add the lemon zest and mix with your fingers until well combined (as I said earlier, I hate lemons and so I didn't add them).  Then, whisk in the eggs, one at a time, until well blended.  (Picture below is what it should look like - kind of gross D:)

3.  Whisk in salt and the extracts (I didn't have almond extract, so I added a tiny bit extra vanilla extract)
4. Switch to a rubber spatula and stir in the flour, about half a cup at a time.  At first it'll look like you added a ton of extra flour, but don't worry because it'll all come together.
5. Finally, fold in the melted butter.  The batter will become more runny.
6. Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top.  Sprinkle the almonds on top, followed by a little sprinkle of sugar over that. 
7. Bake for 25-30 minutes until the edges are golden brown and it looks done.  Remove it from the oven and cool for 5 minutes, then run a knife along the edges to loosen.  You can serve it warm or cold.  Oh, and it makes 8-10 servings.

Et voila!  You're done.  The center of the cake turned out to be really soft and moist, and the edges were crispy.  I think this was one of the best desserts (or breakfast I guess, if you pair it with some fruit) I've made in a long time, and I'll probably make it again.