Delicious almond sponge with cherries and a layer of gooey marzipan in the centre.
Tomorrow there is a coffee morning at my son’s school, as at many other places around the country, to raise money for Macmillan. I’ll be going along to support the school and this brilliant charity and I’ll be doing my bit by drinking lots of tea and coffee and sampling lots of cake!! This year I’m taking this marzipan and cherry cake as my contribution to the baking.
I’m really hoping my cake this year is more successful than last year’s effort – coffee cake with white chocolate icing. The cake tasted delicious, the problem was that I didn’t put the tin lid on properly. That combined with the fact that I tripped as I was walking out of the front door meant that the cake ended up all over my hall floor rather than in the school hall where it should have been (actually there were three pieces that managed to stay in the tin, but I wasn’t sure I could turn up with three pieces of slightly battered looking cake so I ate them at home!).
Since then I’ve invested in a much sturdier cake tin and I’ll be wearing sensible shoes, so fingers crossed no mishaps tomorrow.
I hope you enjoy it.
LOOKING FOR MORE DELICIOUS RECIPES?
Join the Charlotte's Lively Kitchen mailing list to hear about new recipes first.
Marzipan and Cherry Cake
INGREDIENTS
- 150 g unsalted butter - softened
- 2 large eggs
- 150 g caster sugar
- 150 g self raising flour + a little extra for dusting the cherries
- 150 g ground almonds
- 25 g flaked almonds
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 150 g glacé cherries
- 150 g marzipan
- A little icing sugar – to help roll out the marzipan
RECIPE VIDEO
INSTRUCTIONS
- Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan
- 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
- Beat the butter (150g) and caster sugar (150g) until light and fluffy
- Add the eggs one at a time, and beat well after after adding the first egg before adding the second.
- Add the almond extract (1 tsp)
- Fold in the self-raising flour (150g) and ground almonds (150g)
- Prepare the cherries by cutting half (75g) in half, keeping the other half (75g) whole
- 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
- Fold the cherries into the cake mixture
- 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
- Spoon half the mixture into the prepared tin and even out the top
- 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.
- Scatter over the flaked almond (25g)
- 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.
- 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.
NOTES
NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION
Free From/Suitable For…
The ingredients I used to make this recipe are all free from the following allergens. However, please check any labels carefully for allergens you need to avoid as brands can vary and product recipes can change over time.
- Suitable for Vegetarians
- Peanut-Free (contains Tree Nuts)
- Sesame-Free
- Soya-Free
- Fish-Free
- Crustacean-Free
- Mollusc-Free
- Celery-Free
- Mustard-Free
- Lupin-Free
Diana Skolar says
23 July 2019 at 9:54 pmBeautiful cake, so yummy! Made it a couple of times and everyone loved it.
Was wondering if I could bake a larger version? Have you tried increasing the ingredients by 50% or even doubling the cake ingredients. Just don’t know what size cake tin to use and how long it would take to bake. Any one tried doing this?
Charlotte Oates says
22 August 2019 at 8:19 pmI’ve never tried making this cake larger as I worry a little that the slight tendency it has to dip in the middle may become more pronounced when using a bigger tin.
If you want to give it a try, you would need to use a 22.5cm round tin.
One of my previous commenters has recommended chopping the marzipan and spreading it through the mixture instead of using a layer through the middle to fix the dipping-middle problem. On a larger cake, I think this approach would be a good idea.
Finally – sorry for taking a while to reply, for some unknown reason my site decided to hide your question from me.
Janet Openshaw says
28 June 2019 at 10:41 amI made the cake in a round tin and chopped the marzipan in the middle rather than a sheet. It doesn’t sink and tastes delicious!
Charlotte Oates says
28 June 2019 at 1:36 pmGreat tip! I’ll give that a try.
Katie says
15 June 2019 at 4:11 pmBrilliant cake! Just wondering if the solution to the sinking middle is in how the marzipan is added? If you cut a hole in the middle of the marzipan would this prevent it by letting the heat permeate through?
Charlotte Oates says
17 June 2019 at 10:17 amThat’s a good suggestion, I’ll have to test it out next time I bake the cake (it’s a regular in my house). I have a feeling the balance of ingredients also isn’t quite right though, but I can’t bring myself to figure it out as I love how it tastes despite the dip in the middle, I fear I will fix the dip and break the flavour 🙂
S.C says
9 May 2019 at 8:50 amThis cake is fantastic, I have made it lots of times and always comes out perfectly (yes it sinks, but is still lush)
Thank you so much for sharing this
Charlotte Oates says
9 May 2019 at 2:46 pmI keep thinking about fixing the sinking problem, but I don’t want to change it because of the taste 🙂
Nicola says
14 June 2019 at 11:05 amI make your cake in a loaf pan and instead of a layer of marzipan I chop it into chunks like chocolate chips. Its really lovely and doesnt sink.
Thanks for the recipe
Rosie says
30 April 2019 at 11:53 amLovely cake, just what my marzipan-loving 7 year old needed!
LW says
10 April 2019 at 8:24 pmSee comments on previous reply