MARZIPAN and CHERRY CAKE

 MARZIPAN and CHERRY CAKE

Fragrant and fresh, this beautiful fruit-laden cake is ideal for morning or afternoon tea, or as a special Christmas treat.

 

Ingredients:

• 150 g self raising flour + a little extra for dusting the cherries
• 150 g unsalted butter - softened
• 150 g ground almonds
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 25 g flaked almonds
• 150 g glacé cherries
• 150 g caster sugar
• A little icing sugar
• 150 g marzipan
• 2 large eggs

 

 

Instructions:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan
2. Butter and line a deep 18cm cake tin – alternatively I use Delia Bake-O-Glide reusable cake tine liners which don’t need to be buttered
3. Beat the butter (150g) and caster sugar (150g) until light and fluffy
4. Add the eggs one at a time, and beat well after after adding the first egg before adding the second.
5. Add the almond extract (1 tsp)
6. Fold in the self-raising flour (150g) and ground almonds (150g)
7. Prepare the cherries by cutting half (75g) in half, keeping the other half (75g) whole
8. In a seperate bowl, sprinkle a little flour over the cherries and mix to lightly coat the cherries – coating the cherries in flour will help to stop them sinking to the bottom of the cake when it bakes
9. Fold the cherries into the cake mixture
10. Roll out the marzipan (150g) into a circle roughly the same size as the tin – sprinkle a little icing sugar on the worktop and rolling pin to prevent the marzipan from sticking
11. Spoon half the mixture into the prepared tin and even out the top
12. Lay the marzipan on top of the mixture in the cake tin then add the other half of the mixture and even out the top.
13. Scatter over the flaked almond (25g)
14. Bake for approximately 50 minutes – You can use a skewer to check if it’s done, however a little of the marzipan may stick to the skewer meaning it doesn’t come out clean even when the cake is cooked.
15. Once baked, remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for about 20 minutes, remove from the tin and transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely (although the cake tastes delicious eaten warm. Enjoy your cake!