A light fruit cake laden with homemade marzipan. As tradition dictates, it has a surprise squidgy layer of marzipan in the middle and a layer on top. It's then decorated with eleven large balls of the stuff. Less traditionally, the cake contains pieces of chocolate. Scrumptious.
Prep Time1 hourhr
Cook Time1 hourhr
Soaking Time8 hourshrs
Total Time10 hourshrs
Course: Afternoon Tea
Cuisine: British
Keyword: cake, chocolate, Easter, fruit cake, marzipan, Mother's Day
225gwholemeal spelt flouror use half plain flour and half ordinary wholemeal
1 ½tspbaking powder
1tspmixed spice
1pinchsea salt(I used Himalayan pink rock salt)
2tbspmilk(I used sour milk)
50gchocolate - chopped(I've used dark milk chocolate, but have also found dark chocolate works well too)
50gcrystallised orange and lemon peel - chopped(I used homemade)
Marzipan
1medium egg(I used a small duck egg)
2tbsporange liqueur or juice
125ggolden caster sugar
250gground almonds
125gicing sugar
Instructions
Cake
Place the fruit in a bowl and squeeze in the juice from half a lemon. Add a good slug of Amaretto.
350 g mixed dried fruit, 1 organic lemon, 50 ml Amaretto liqueur
Cover the bowl with a plate and leave to soak overnight.
Cream the butter and sugar until very light and fluffy.
175 g unsalted butter, 175 g light muscovado sugar
Grate in the lemon zest and cream some more.
Beat in the eggs, one by one until combined. If the mixture starts to curdle, add the ground almonds.
4 large eggs
Stir in the ground almonds.
50 g ground almonds
Sift in the flour, baking powder, spice and salt then fold into the egg mixture and stir in the milk.
225 g wholemeal spelt flour, 1 ½ tsp baking powder, 1 tsp mixed spice, 1 pinch sea salt, 2 tbsp milk
Fold in the dried fruit, chocolate and crystallised citrus peel.
50 g chocolate - chopped, 50 g crystallised orange and lemon peel - chopped
Spoon half of the mixture into a 23 cm round silicone cake mould or lined tin.
Pat out ⅓ of the marzipan (about 175g if using shop bought) into a large round slightly smaller than the cake tin. Place it on top of the cake mixture.
Spoon the remaining mixture on top of the marzipan and level the top.
Bake at 180℃ (350℉, Gas 4) for 20 minutes and then turn the oven down to 170℃ (338℉, Gas 3) and bake for a further 40 minutes or so. If the top of the cake looks like it’s beginning to burn, cover with some brown paper or tin foil.
Leave to cool for a few minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Wrap in greaseproof paper and store in an airtight tin for up to a week.
Marzipan
In a large bowl whisk the the egg with the orange liqueur or juice.
1 medium egg, 2 tbsp orange liqueur or juice
Add the sugar and ground almonds and mix.
125 g golden caster sugar, 250 g ground almonds
Sift in the icing sugar and mix again.
125 g icing sugar
Turn out onto a work surface and knead until soft.
Remove a third of the mixture for the middle of the cake as mentioned above. Wrap the rest well and store in the fridge until you’re ready to decorate the cake.
Divide the remaining mixture into two more or less equal portions.
Roll the bigger half out into a 23cm circle.
Brush the top of the cake with Amaretto and press on the circle of marzipan. Plum or apricot jam work well too.
Neaten the edges with a knife then score a diamond pattern on the top.
Place under a hot grill for 2 minutes to brown.
Divide the remaining mixture into 11 equal sized pieces and roll into balls.
Place marzipan balls around the edge of the cake.
Notes
Please note: calories and other nutritional information are per serving. They’re approximate and will depend on exact ingredients used.