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.
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
Any nutritional information provided is the estimated nutritional information per serving. Please refer to my guide to Charlotte’s Lively Kitchen nutritional information if you would like to learn more about how this is calculated.
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
Dean says
This cake is beautiful. I have saved it to my favorites.
I wish I was better at making something
Using metric system. I am not at all. I will give this a try though. I have reached a point for some reason, I like the
Cake better without frosting. Thank you for posting this beautiful recipe
Dean says
Well you made it simple. I just now see that the recipe converts to US measurements.
Thanks again!!
Annette says
I am having trouble obtaining glace cherries. Can I add real cherries instead and would the volume be the same?
Charlotte Oates says
I haven’t tried it with cherries, but I would expect it to be fine. I would use the same weight.
Karen says
Made today absolutely beautiful ❤️
Kate says
Thanks for this delicious recipe. I did have to grind flaked almonds in the pestle and mortar to make it and my mixture wasn’t loose enough so I added a little milk – though this could have been because both eggs were double yolkers!
Also it cooked really quickly as my tin was quite shallow and small. Amazing taste though and you don’t need massive slices. We’ve all voted it best lockdown bake! Thanks again.
Clair says
Making this for my husbands birthday cake but really don’t want a dip in the middle as I’m going to be icing it also, so will take the idea of cutting a circle out of the middle of the marzipan layer to see if this helps.
Also, do you think this cake is suitable for freezing? As I would like to make a couple of days in advance..
Charlotte Oates says
I havent tried freezing this cake, but i would expect it to be fine. However, if you’re only making it a couple of days in advance ity’ll be fine stored in an airtight container, with no need to freeze it.
Jane says
I made this for my parents as a lockdown treat and they said it’s one of the best cakes they’ve ever had. I didn’t get to try any so I’m very keen to try this for myself now!
Vidhya says
HI Charlotte,
This recipe looks wonderful! I was searching on ways to use premade marzipan ( I bought the one from waitrose) and came across this- sounds like the perfect combination of flavors I want to try , cherry and almond ! I do have some questions though before I try as I ll have to make some changes so thought may be I’d best check with u first
1. I would be making this eggless as we don’t eat eggs at home. Can I use a egg replacement mixture u think? Also, hubby is vegan and if i use good vegan butter ( earth balance) – am hoping it can work?
2. Can i use almond flour ( the more fine type) instead of ground almonds for this recipe ?
3. When I saw the comments , I saw a mention of baking powder but then there is no baking powder in the recipe – is there supposed to be one and how much perhaps? Or is there baking soda? From my previous experience, batter for eggless cakes may be drier than expected and a combination of non- dairy milk/ baking soda usually helps these cakes become softer and fluffier so I am wondering if ought to experiment with a small amount of that in case my batter is even more drier than that in your video..
Thanks again, do let me know what u think and if I try this, I ll surely let u know!
Charlotte Oates says
I’ve not made this cake as a vegan cake (or used egg replacer) before so I’m not 100% sure whether egg replacer would work. If, as you say, egg replacer makes the batter thicker then I don’t think it would work well. This cake already has quite a thick batter compared to many other cake mixes and I think this would make it unworkable, I suspect you could use a combination of plant milk, vinegar and baking soda to replace the eggs (as this would give moisture keeping a good consistency), but without testing it, I’m not too sure of the quantities you’d need.
You should be fine to replace ground almonds with almond flour and vegan butter for regular.
Vidhya Iyer says
Hi Charlotte,
Thank you for your reply! I am excited to let u know that I did make this cake , with some changes for making it vegan and it turned out amazing! It was moist, held shape hence beautiful, and just the right texture and sweetness – a tad crumbly, but I think that should get sorted if I take it out a few mins earlier from the oven. It was delicious and everyone at home loved it- so thank you for this recipe .
Thought I’d share my vegan alterations in case anyone is interested:
– replaced vegan butter and vegan egg ( same amount as in your recipe)
– used almond flour since I only had that on hand
– some additions ( as batter seemed a bit too dry and also below ingredients give good results with vegan cake from my experience)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
4 tablespoons oat milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/ 2 more tsp of almond essence
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Great cake and I hope to be making this another time soon ( I happen to have a lot of marzipan left in my store, haha). Thanks again 😉
Charlotte Oates says
I’m so glad you enjoyed the cake.
Thanks for the vegan adaptation, I’ll be sure to share it with others if they’re after the same thing.
Cheryl says
This recipe is devine and so easy to make, tastes hust like a Cherry Bakewell.
I was looking for a recipe to use up left over marzipan from Christmas, this was perfect. I used brandy marzipan and it has given the cake a little extra flavour.
My family love it thank you
Sara says
This is a big favourite it out house. Huge brownie points from the mother in law when I bake her one. But there are arguments about who gets the biggest,last piece
janice gallon says
Loved this will definitely make it again
Lovely and moist and very moreish
Julie Wood says
I didn’t have cherries so modified the recipe slightly by spreading raspberry seedless jam over the marzipan before I put it on the first layer of sponge mixture, then put the rest of the mixture over the top as per instructions.
The cake was a huge hit with family and friends! many thanks!