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.
This marzipan and cherry cake recipe is my family’s favourite, whenever there’s some sort of family party my husband will ask to me to make it. It’s an almond sponge with glacé cherries running through it, and a layer of marzipan through the centre. I’ve tried a few different recipes for this cake and after a bit of trial and error I’ve ended up with this version.
I hope you enjoy it.
Marzipan and Cherry Cake
Delicious almond sponge with cherries and a layer of gooey marzipan in the centre.
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
Instructions
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Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan
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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
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Beat the butter (150g) and caster sugar (150g) until light and fluffy
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Add the eggs one at a time, and beat well after after adding the first egg before adding the second.
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Add the almond extract (1 tsp)
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Fold in the self-raising flour (150g) and ground almonds (150g)
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Prepare the cherries by cutting half (75g) in half, keeping the other half (75g) whole
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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
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Fold the cherries into the cake mixture
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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
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Spoon half the mixture into the prepared tin and even out the top
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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.
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Scatter over the flaked almond (25g)
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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.
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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.
Recipe Notes
Have you tried this recipe? Please leave a comment and rating at the bottom of the page to let others know what you thought.
Watch a video of this recipe…
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
Can we use any berry instead of cherry?
I’ve not tried other berries but they should be fine. My only slight concern would be that the liquid content might affect the texture of the cake a little (as I use glace cherries in this cake).
Tried this recipe today and oh wow, what a cake! So easy to make and it tastes delicious! I have no doubt that this cake will be gone by tomorrow. Even the darkened edges taste so good when contrasted against the sticky/sweet middle. It’s such a shame that the middle drops quite a bit. I did try to add more batter in the centre which worked whilst it was baking but then the middle dropped whilst cooling. Definitely will be a cake I do again and again!
That annoys me too but it tastes so good I’ve never tried to fix it! I really should try sometime.
Thanks for the video, I wouldn’t have known the steps. I don’t have ground almonds, can I still continue?
They’re a pretty fundamental part of the recipe in terms of flavour and texture so I don’t think it would work. Sorry.
Hi, would this work with the marzipan chopped up rather than layered, I like marzipan but find it gives me toothache if I eat lots of it, or could i grate it maybe.
Yes it would work fins both ways. The only think to ensure is that there’s no marzipan on the top surface of the cake while it’s baking as it’ll burn and have a bitter taste. If you find marzipan too sweet you can also make this cake without the marzipan layer it’ll work fine and you’ll still have a good almond flavour from the ground almonds and almond extract in the mixture.
love the taste but can’t get it right – when i fold in the almonds and flour it becomes a thick mass that barely covers the pa. when halved – is it meant to be so thick you have to spoon and then spread?
The mixture is quite thick and it does need to be spread rather than poured. If you take a look at the video you should see what the consistency should be like.
Can this be a gluten free option?
I haven’t tried making this cake gluten free but I’ve had comments from people that have switched the self-raising flour for a gluten-free alternative and have said that it worked really well.