Visitation Cakes

Today is the first Secret Recipe Club reveal of 2013.  This month I was assigned the blog Heavenly Treats and Treasures,  after searching through all of the recipes I kept going back to the visitation cakes as they looked so good and I definitely prefer cakes that aren't overly sweet and without lots of frosting.  I had never heard of visitation cakes before, but they originated in the convent of a community of French nuns called the Sisters of the Visitation.

I ended up having to make these with blackberries, because I spent 2 weeks searching for raspberries as the recipe calls for, but just couldn't find any.  These worked just fine with blackberries but I do think we would have preferred them with raspberries just because we like those better than blackberries. 

1 stick unsalted butter
3/4 cup blanched almonds, finely ground
1 1/4 cups icing sugar
4 large egg whites
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
Zest of one lemon
Blackberries (or raspberries)

Preheat oven to 375 and grease a mini muffin pan.

Put the butter in a medium saucepan and melt it over medium heat. Continue cooking the butter until it colors lightly. Set aside.

Put the almonds, icing sugar, and egg whites in the same saucepan and place over low heat, stirring constantly, until they are just warm, about 100 degrees.

Remove the pan from the heat and fold in the flour. Fold in the butter, extracts and lemon zest.

Fill the pan 3/4 full, top each cake with a fresh blackberry and bake for 10-12 minutes, until the cakes are golden brown.  Leave to cool and sprinkle with icing sugar.