makes about 16 to 20 servings

1 1/2 cups sliced almonds, toasted

3 cups sugar

1 cup butter, room temperature

4 ounces almond paste, room temperature

6 eggs, room temperature

2 teaspoons almond extract

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 cup Amaretto

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup cake flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup sour cream

2/3 cup chopped dried apricots

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan. (I used a 9-inch springform pan with a bundt-style bottom; it made it easier to unmold the cake and there was enough batter left to fill a regular loaf pan).

Grind the toasted almonds and 3 tablespoons of sugar together in a food processor until very fine.

Combine the flour, cake flour, salt and baking soda together in a bowl and set aside.

In the mixer bowl combine the butter and sugar together on medium speed until very fluffy and pale. Add the almond paste and combine until well blended. (It is best to add the almond paste in small pieces to allow it to incorporate more easily. Be sure it is soft enough to blend; you don’t want to break the mixer!) Add in the ground almond-sugar mixture.

Add the eggs one at the time, scraping down between each addition. Add the almond and vanilla extracts, and the Amaretto.  The mixture should be very fluffy by now.

Add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with sour cream in two additions.  Be careful not to overbeat the mixture at this point or the cake will become overly dense and flat.

Fold in the apricots. Turn the mixture out into the tube pan, filling it up a little over three-quarters of the way.

Bake the cake in the oven for about an hour to hour and a half, or until a wooden skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean and the cake is beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan.

Cool the cake on a wire rack for about 15 minutes. Run an offset spatula or knife around the edge of the pan and the center tube. Unmold the cake unto the rack and let it finish cooling. You should wait until it is cool before serving because the cake is quite crumbly and delicate while it is still warm. However, I could not resist eating some of the bits that fell off – and they were very delicious!

Store the cake either in a cake container or wrapped in plastic.