Daring Bakers: Sans Rival

Catherine of Munchie Musings was our November Daring Bakers’ host and she challenged us to make a traditional Filipino dessert – the delicious Sans Rival cake! And for those of us who wanted to try an additional Filipino dessert, Catherine also gave us a bonus recipe for Bibingka which comes from her friend Jun of Jun-blog.

I chose to make my Sans Rival cake with almonds instead of cashews because I had almonds on hand and also I don't like cashews as much. I used almond meal for the ground nuts in the batter, which made it simpler to make. To flavor the buttercream with almond flavor I used Disaronno instead of almond extract because I didn't have any. 

I thought this recipe was fun to make, but I wasn't sure I was going to like the cake. After it sat for a night in the fridge the layers softened and it was a lot easier to cut than I expected. Even though the cake was really sweet from all the frosting it had an interesting texture and good flavor. If I ever made it again I would try to make the buttercream less sweet and perhaps make the dacquoise layers thicker.

Almond Sans Rival Cake with Disaronno Buttercream