Pull-Apart Yeast Cake

Yeast dough:

1. Yeast: If making the dough with fresh or active dry yeast, mix the lukewarm milk and the crumbled fresh yeast (or sprinkle the active dry yeast in the milk) in a small bowl and stir until the yeast dissolves.
2. Place the flour into a large bowl and make a well in the middle. Pour the milk-yeast mixture into the well and mix it with a little flour.
3. If using instant yeast, mix the flour, sugar, and salt with the instant yeast. Add the milk and continue with the recipe.
4. Add the eggs and the very soft butter.
5. Knead for about 5 minutes using the kneading attachments of you hand-held mixer. The dough should be smooth and soft, you will not be able to knead it with your hands.
6. Let rise: Cover the bowl with a kitchen cloth and let the dough rise in a warm place. It should double in size, this will take about 30 to 40 minutes, depending on the type of yeast you are using and on the temperature in your kitchen. Keep checking.
7. Line a springform pan (diameter 26 cm/ 10 inches) with baking paper, bottom, and walls of the pan.

Shape the dough for the monkey bread:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius/ 360 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Pour the oil into a shallow bowl or a soup/pasta plate.
3. Mix the almonds and sugar in a similar dish.
4. Form dough: Remove pieces of dough out of the bowl helping yourself with two tablespoons. Scoop a very full tablespoon out of the dough, helping yourself with the second spoon.
5. Turn each piece first through the oil and then through the almond-sugar mixture. Don't worry if the pieces look lumpy, they are supposed to be like that.
6. Place each piece of dough in the prepared pan. After you've arranged about half of the dough pieces into the pan, you might have the feeling that the pan is too small for all the pieces to fit in. I thought so too at first, but I was wrong, everything fits perfectly, you just have to push the pieces that are already in the pan around and you will be able to fit the remaining ones as well. You should have 14-16 pieces of dough.
7. Bake the cake for 30 to 40 minutes (depending on your oven) or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean and dry. Enjoy lukewarm or at room temperature.