Toscakaka

Adapted from Poires au Chocolat 

Ingredients: 

Cake:
100g soured milk
100g butter
1tbsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs
20g glucose
130g sugar
200g flour
5g baking powder
3g salt

Almond topping:
180g butter
180g sugar
80g heavy cream
230g flaked almonds
1/8 tsp salt

Cake:
Line the bottom of a 25cm springform tin.
Melt the butter, and stir in the soured milk. Leave to cool.
Mix flour, baking powder and salt.
Crack eggs into mixer bowl, add sugar and glucose. Whisk at medium speed until thick and creamy. It should leave a trail long enough for you to write an initial.
Sift in a third of the flour, and then whisk until it disappears. Pour in half the butter-milk mixture. Alternate in this way until the flour is all in.
Scrape the bottom and fold it roughly (without deflating the mixture) to make sure that it is even.
Pour into tin and bake at 160C.
Remove when a skewer comes out clean -- about 25 minutes -- and turn the heat up to 200C.

Almond topping:
After the cake has been in the oven for 20 minutes or so, start making the topping.
Dump the butter, sugar and cream into a pot. Heat on medium, while stirring. When it turns into a glossy mixture with large bubbles, remove from stove, and pour in the almonds.
Stir to coat the almonds in the mixture.

Pour the almond topping on the cake, spreading it around with a spatula. Put it back in the oven for about 8 minutes. Watch the cake, and take it out when the topping is shiny and brown but before it burns.

Notes: 
Be mindful of the temperature of the eggs. If they are too cold, the mixture will curdle a tiny bit when you add in the soured milk and butter mixture, and the texture of the cake will be coarser.

This makes for a very topping heavy cake. You can reduce it a bit, if you like.

I make more caramel mixture than is needed for the almonds to adhere to the cake because I like it to soak a little into the cake too. It helps make the cake a little less dry in case you forgot to take it out of the oven on time too.

The cake is best on the day it is made. The next day,  warm it up a little in the oven. It makes the caramel chewy rather than crisp again, but it is definitely better sloppy caramel.