Cranberry Almond Coffeecake

Thanksgiving: a day of thanks. The day after Thanksgiving: a day of leftovers! What about that lonely bowl of cranberry sauce? For many families, one can's not enough, while two are too many. Then there's Aunt Edna, who brings her homemade cranberry-orange relish, contributing to the cranberry overflow. If you're like most of us, you don't dare throw it away.

Here's what you do. While the leftovers are being dealt with Thursday night, scoop out a cup or so of cranberry sauce and put it in a special spot in the fridge. Sunday morning, make the following coffeecake. You'll have it on hand to serve holiday-weekend visitors, or the straggling remnants of your visiting family. At last -- a guilt-free solution to residual cranberry sauce!
1 stick margarine or butter
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk or yogurt (nonfat is fine, and better for you)
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup cranberry sauce (whole berry is preferable)
1/2 cup blanched slivered almonds, toasted

Glaze
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
In a large bowl, cream together margarine or butter and sugar. Beat in eggs, buttermilk or yogurt, and almond extract. In a separate bowl, mix together baking powder, baking soda, flour and salt. Add all at once to the wet ingredients, stirring just to blend.

Grease and flour a tube pan. Spoon half of batter into pan. Spread half of cranberry sauce evenly atop batter, then spread remaining batter over that. Top with remaining cranberry sauce, and sprinkle toasted almonds evenly over sauce.

Bake coffeecake in a preheated 350°F oven for 55 minutes, or until cake tests done. Remove from oven, and cool in pan for 5 minutes. While cake is cooling, make glaze by mixing confectioners' sugar, milk and almond extract. Turn cake out of pan, and dribble glaze over warm cake. Let cake cool completely before serving (or serve it warm, if you don't mind it crumbling a bit!)