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This is a very basic marzipan cake, a classic basic German cake which is firmer and more dense than the English sponge cake. I shall be experimenting with various additions of fruit and/or nuts, as I have so many delicious cake recipes in my German cookery book and folder with old recipes from my mother, etc.

Anyway, many, many years ago I made this cake as a birthday cake for my son. He is really keen on marzipan, so he requested this cake recently.

I have a terrible admission to make: I had not baked in nearly two decades, and for some reason amidst moving homes my baking equipment got either sadly missing or was thrown out due to not working anymore. I tend to focus on spicy, savoury dishes, so baking had never been my forté, even though I produced some pretty awesome cakes in the past. This I will need to change and get myself back into baking again (maybe invest in some decent equipment ….)

Anyway, after all this time, this cake is my first *again*

For this basic marzipan cake you’ll need the following ingredients:

200g marzipan

200g butter

100g sugar

1 small packet of vanilla sugar (16g) – (if you can’t get vanilla sugar just add some vanilla extract)

4 eggs

2 drops of almond baking oil, or ½-1tsp of almond extract/essence

250g flour

75g corn flour

1 level tsp of baking powder

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For the chocolate covering:

100g good quality high % cocoa chocolate

A small amount of coconut oil

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Baking temperature & time:

150-175’C (preheated)
Gas mark 2-3 (not preheated)
Baking time: about 65 minutes.

Method:

Kneed the marzipan and mix it in with the butter, stir till it’s all smooth. Gradually add the sugar, vanilla sugar, eggs and the almond oil into the mix.

Combine the flour, corn flour and baking powder and sift it into your mix. It is quite firm dough.

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Make sure that the cake tin is well greased. You can either use a round tin, like I did, or an ordinary rectangular bread tin.

Check the cake after about 60 minutes and if the knife test comes out clean, the cake is done.

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Take it out and allow it to cool thoroughly on a cooling rack.

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Once cooled, you can then do the chocolate covering.

Break the chocolate into small pieces and add a small amount of coconut oil. Melt the chocolate in a water bath (right, someone help this German what the proper terminology is for this process … surely it’s not call a ‘water bath’ in English … well follow the pictures LOL).

Once melted, just pour the chocolate over the cake, let it cool and set and then sprinkle some icing sugar over it, if you like.

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You can serve the cake as it is, or you can also serve it as a desert with cream or ice cream and compote of berries. The berries give a nice contrast to the sweet cake. If you like you can also pour some cherry brandy over it … well let your creativity flow.

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