Orange Almond Coffeecake

This is the coffeecake I made for last month's Lutheran Confessions study at our church.  It's like a Bible study, but instead of studying the Bible, we study The Book of Concord.  My husband (the pastor) leads the study, and while I don't attend (I stay home with the kiddos), my contribution each month is supplying the goodies.  It's a morning event, so I always make either a coffeecake or muffins.  I saw this cake from Pillsbury, and since my husband loves all things orange, I had to give it a try.  

Orange Almond Coffeecake

Ingredients:

1 can refrigerated orange flavor sweet rolls with icing

¼ cup orange marmalade

⅓ cup flour

2 tbsp sugar

¼ cup almond paste, crumbled

3 tbsp cold butter, cubed

2 tbsp sliced almonds, toasted

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°.  Spray a 9” round cake pan with baking spray. 

Separate dough into 8 rolls. (Reserve icing.) Press rolls in bottom of pan. Drop marmalade by ½ tablespoonfuls evenly over each roll.

In medium bowl, mix flour and sugar. With pastry blender, cut in almond paste and butter until mixture looks like fine crumbs. Sprinkle evenly over dough.

Place pan in oven on pan with sides. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Remove the lid from the icing container.  Microwave icing on High for 10 seconds; stir. Immediately drizzle over coffee cake; sprinkle with nuts. Cool 20 minutes.  Cut into wedges.

Makes 8 servings.

 Separate the rolls and flatten them slightly in the cake pan.  Top each with a generous dollop of orange marmalade.

 Streusel topping, then into the oven it goes.  So I have to admit that I have made this cake twice now, and have made mistakes with the recipe both times.  Oops!  Both times I forgot to add the butter to the flour/sugar/almond paste topping mixture.  That's why it looks so powdery and crumbly.  But just so you know, it's still really good even if you forget the butter!  All of the pics in this post are butter-less.  But next time I will try to remember to add the butter.

The other mistake I made the first time (the time I made it for the Confessions Study) was that I totally forgot to add the orange drizzle and the toasted almonds.  Doh!  That's the best part!  Amazingly enough, even without those awesome additions, it was a huge hit at the study and I was begged for the recipe.  Just wait til they try it with the drizzle and the almonds!

You can see the separation of the rolls a little bit, but it still stays together well when cut into wedges.

The orange and almond flavors pair so well together.  The sweetness of the marmalade and the drizzle and the toasty crunch of the sliced almonds take this cake to a whole new level.  It's absolutely divine with a hot cup of coffee.