My mother’s favorite cake is Sans Rival (without competition). When she turned 100 in October 2019, I decided to surprise her by baking one, using her recipe.

Cake layers:

• 400 g almond paste
• 4 egg whites

Filling:

• 1/2 cup (1 1/4 dl) almonds
• 1/2 cup + 2 T (1 1/2 dl) sugar
• 200 g butter (room temperature)
• 1/2 cup (1 1/4 dl) powdered sugar
• 4 egg yolks

Topping:

• 50 g roasted almond flakes
• pink almond paste (In Sweden I buy ready made pink sheets of almond paste which I cut into strips to decorate the side of the cake with). In the US I use food coloring and make my own strips of almond paste.
• pink almond roses (you can either buy them ready made, or make your own with the left over colored almond paste).

• Preheat the oven to 300 F/150 C

1. Grate the almond paste. Whip the egg whites until they get stiff. Mix them with the almond paste.
2. Draw three squares 9″x9″ (23×23 cm) on parchment paper on a baking tray. Put the almond paste in the three squares and bake them in the middle of the oven for about 20 minutes. Let the squares cool a little before removing them from the parchment paper.
3. Chop the almonds roughly. Melt the sugar in a saucepan until gold colored. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon. (Be careful not to burn the sugar). Add the chopped almonds and pour the mix onto parchment paper on a baking tray to cool. When cool, put it in a food processor and chop it up into small pieces.
4. Mix the butter, powdered sugar, and egg yolks. Add the almond mix. Put together the cake layers with the filling between each layer and on top. Sprinkle the roasted almond flakes on the top layer and decorate with almond paste around the edges and on top. (See picture). Top it off with a rose and maybe a couple of green leaves if you get extra creative. Tastes good with a cup of coffee, but when you turn 100, champagne is a good alternative :)). This cake freezes well.