Recipe

Beat together almond butter, sugar, cream cheese and egg yolks; stir in almonds and flour to make almond filling. Set aside.

Cake: In heatproof bowl, whisk together cocoa powder and 3/4 cup/175 mL boiling water; whisk in chocolate until smooth. Whisk in sour cream; set aside.

In large bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy; beat in vanilla and almond extracts. One at a time, beat in eggs. In separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt; stir into butter mixture alternately with cocoa mixture, making 3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of wet to make batter.

Spoon slightly more than half of the batter into well greased 10-inch/3 L Bundt pan. Divide almond filling into quarters; between hands, roll each into 1-1/4-inch/3 cm diameter cylinders. Place on batter, end-to-end, to make ring around centre. Spoon remaining batter over top; smooth surface then lightly tap pan on counter.

Bake in centre of 350F/180C oven until just firm to the touch and tester inserted in centre comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Let cool in pan on rack for about 5 minutes. Carefully run knife around edge of pan; invert rack over pan, then unmould and let cool on rack.

Glaze: Stir icing sugar with liqueur until smooth, adding a little more liqueur if necessary to make just pourable. Spoon over top of cake, letting drizzle down sides; sprinkle with almond slices.

Makes 12 servings.