Cherry and Almond Cake

One of my BB's favourite things is cake. If that's a Cherry and Almond cake, then so much the better.

It didn't take me long to find a recipe here at this excellent blog site, The English Kitchen blog.

Typically, being a 'bit' (understatement) of a food hoarder, I had all of the ingredients to hand, including marzipan and ground almonds that I had not used when making the Christmas cakes back in November. It's hard to know what to do with marzipan after Christmas, so this recipe is perfect. Actually, I lie, I didn't have the almond extract - mainly because I find the taste quite false and artificial. I don't think the cake lacked anything for not having it added..

Although we had it as a birthday cake, it would be a perfect cake for teatime. The cherries and the marzipan do make it a little sweet. Next time, I think I would use less sugar in the recipe.

Here'e the recipe reproduced from The English Kitchen blog.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ingredients

8 ounces butter, at room temperature (1 cup)
8 ounces golden caster sugar (1 cup plus 2 TBS)
4 large free range eggs, beaten
8 ounces self raising flour (2 cups)
8 ounces glace cherries, chopped (1 cup)
4 ounces ground almonds (1 scant cup)
2 to 3 drops of almond extract
9 ounces marzipan (a generous 1/2 pound)
2 ounces flaked almonds (1/2 cup)
sifted icing sugar to serve (optional)

Method

Preheat the oven to 160*C/325*F. Butter a deep 8-inch round baking tin and line the base and sides with parchment paper.

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Pour in the eggs, a bit at a time, beating well after each addition. Fold in the flour one third at a time. Fold in the cherries, ground almonds and almond extract, mixing all in until evenly combined.

Spoon half of the batter into the prepared tin.

Roll the marzipan into a 7 1/2 inch round. Lay this on top of the batter in the tin. Spoon the remainder of the batter over top.

Smooth over the top of the cake with the back of a spoon and then sprinkle the flaked almonds evenly over top.

Bake in the preheated oven for 1 1/2 hours, covering with foil after the first hour if it appears to be getting too dark. The cake is done when it shrinks away from the sides of the tin and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Leave to cool in the tin for 20 minutes, before turning out onto a wire rack to finish cooling completely.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

OK, back over to me ...

Here's the cake with the marzipan layer rolled out and put over half of the cake mixture:. You can see that I used a little icing sugar to roll out the marzipan.

This is the next half of the cake mixture going on top of the marzipan.

Once I smoothed over the cake mixture, I sprinkled over flaked almonds - and moved to a clean surface!

And so to the oven !

This is the finished cake. If you look close enough, you can see the marzipan layer under the yellow candle.