Almond cake (with homemade marzipan)

As I flipped through a few cookbooks and magazines searching for inspiration, I thought of how I am attracted to similar recipes, over and over again – I can’t resist a brownie, I make oatmeal cookies quite often, and every time I see a citrus cake recipe I immediately bookmark it.

It might be a matter of taste, or it is because I seem to have the same ingredients at home time and time again, but I sometimes even tell myself that I will bake something different, only to end up making one of the favorites above.

Another recipe I cannot resist? Almond cakes – I’d probably make almond cakes every week if could. This recipe came in very handy for I’d made marzipan for a cookie recipe for my Christmas series (from this book), but the recipe failed miserably and I had to use up the marzipan left quickly.

This cake is easy to make, moist and absolutely delicious – if you’re nuts for almond cakes like me you should give it a go.

Almond cake (with homemade marzipan)
slightly adapted from the delicious and beautiful A La Grecque: Our Greek table

½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
finely grated zest of 1 orange
finely grated zest of 1 lime
250g unsalted butter, room temperature
200g marzipan, chopped – I used homemade
4 eggs
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup (45g) all purpose flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
½ cup (60g) flaked almonds

Preheat your oven to 180°C. Butter a 20x7cm (8x3in) round cake pan with a removable bottom, line the bottom with a circle of baking paper and butter it as well.

Place sugar, orange and lime zest in the bowl of an electric mixer and rub together until sugar is fragrant. Add butter and beat until pale and fluffy. Add the marzipan, beating well until it is completely incorporated.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together and fold into the cake mixture. Spoon into the cake pan and smooth the top. Sprinkle with flaked almonds. Bake for 45 minutes, or until golden and cooked (a skewer inserted in the center of the cake should come out clean).
Cool completely in the pan over a wire rack. Carefully unmold and serve.

Serves 8-10

Plum and marzipan torta with cardamom sugar for the end of the summer

I cannot wait for fall to come – I never liked hot days and have had enough with the high temperatures around here. Summer was never a favorite of mine, not even when I was a kid, so you can imagine how uncomfortable these past months have been for me.

There is one good thing about summer: the delicious produce we have at this time of the year. Corn, tomatoes and stone fruits – my favorites. However, while flipping some cookbooks weeks ago, it suddenly hit me: summer is almost over and I haven’t baked or cooked much with stone fruit. I love them so much yet I keep baking recipes with citrus or chocolate or peanut butter – I should enjoy these beauties while there’s still time.

For that reason I decided to make at least one of the plum recipes I saw on the latest issue of Gourmet Traveller (and I plan on making another next weekend): this torta, or cake, beautifully presented with gleaming plum halves. The addition of marzipan was my idea because anything almond always pairs wonderfully with anything stone fruit – this time was no different and I’m very proud of that. ;)

Plum and marzipan torta with cardamom sugar
slightly adapted from the always stunning Gourmet Traveller

Poached plums:
½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
200ml water
5 plums, halved and stones removed

Cake:
½ cup (120ml) whole milk, room temperature
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 egg
130g granulated sugar
225g all purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
60g unsalted butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
100g marzipan, in small pieces – I used homemade
2 tablespoons melted butter, for brushing the cake

Cardamom sugar topping:
1 tablespoon icing sugar
¼ teaspoon freshly ground cardamom

For poached plums, stir sugar and water in a medium saucepan over high heat to dissolve sugar, then bring to the simmer. Reduce heat to low, add plums and poach until tender (10-12 minutes). Cool to room temperature.
Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F. Lightly butter a 20cm (8in) square cake pan, line the bottom with baking paper and butter the paper as well.
Combine milk and lemon juice in a bowl and set aside for 5 minutes. Whisk the egg and sugar in a separate bowl to combine, then add milk mixture, flour, baking powder, salt, melted butter, vanilla and lemon zest, whisk until smooth, then pour into prepared pan. Drain plums (discard poaching liquid) and press gently into cake batter. Scatter with marzipan pieces and press them lightly into the cake batter. Bake until an inserted skewer comes out clean (25-30 minutes). Cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack. Turn right way up again (carefully), then brush with melted butter.
For cardamom sugar, combine sugar and cardamom, scatter on top of warm cake and serve warm or at room temperature. The torta is best eaten on the day it’s made.

Serves 6-8 – I made the exact recipe above using a 20x28cm tart pan with a removable bottom

Lemon and marzipan drizzle cake and a dull season premiere

Because of the fantastic Top of the Lake I began watching Mad Men again – I guess I missed the lovely Peggy Olson. :)

Three episodes into the sixth season and to me the show has really lost its sparkle – I don’t remember a season premiere as dull as that, and why on earth make it last that long if there was nothing interesting in it (the people behind it should take lessons from the people behind the season premiere of Hannibal). I will go on with Mad Men out of curiosity – I want to know how things will be managed for the show finale – but it won’t be a priority, for sure: Dr. Lecter is back, Sons of Anarchy is very interesting and there are still a couple of episodes left with one of my favorite villains of all time – yes, Mad Men can definitely wait. :)

There was something in my fridge that couldn’t wait, though: the marzipan left from this cake had to be used soon since it lasts in the fridge for only one month. I ended up making two delicious recipes with it and one of them was this lemon cake: moist, moreish, tasty, it gets even better the day after it is made – if it lasts that long. :)

Lemon and marzipan drizzle cake
slightly adapted from here

1 cup (225g/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup + 2 tablespoons (225g) granulated sugar
finely grated zest of 3 lemons
juice of 1 lemon
150g marzipan, chopped into small chunks (about 1cm/½in squares) – I used homemade
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup + 1 tablespoon (150g) all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
1 cup (100g) ground almonds

Drizzle:
juice of 2 lemons
2 tablespoons Amaretto (optional)
4 tablespoons granulated sugar (cut to 3 if omitting the Amaretto)

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Lightly butter a deep 20cm (8in) round cake pan, line the bottom with a circle of baking paper and butter the paper as well.
Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy, then add the lemon zest and juice, and the marzipan pieces – try to keep them separate so they don't stick together.
Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. The mixture will probably curdle because of the lemon juice – don't worry, it will come back together when the flour is added. Beat in the vanilla. Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt, stir through the ground almonds, and beat briefly until smooth.

Transfer the mix to the cake pan, level the top and bake in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes, before turning the oven down to 170°C, and baking for a further 50 minutes*. Cover the top of the cake with foil if it begins to look too dark, but only after it's been cooking for 30 minutes.
About 5 minutes before the end of cooking time, make the drizzle: put the lemon juice and Amaretto in a small saucepan and heat until steaming. Stir through the sugar and cook over medium heat for 1 minute. Remove from the heat. When the cake is cooked, pierce it all over with a skewer and gradually pour over the syrup, waiting for the cake to absorb it before pouring more. Once all the liquid has been absorbed, cool the cake completely in the pan. Carefully unmold, remove the paper and invert it onto a serving plate.

The cake can be kept in an airtight container for 3-4 days.

* I baked the cake at 180°C/350°F the whole time, total of 60 minutes

Serves 8-10

Cherry, pistachio and marzipan cake, and things worth waiting for

Every time I see something delicious made with cherries I mentally file the recipe to make it by the end of the year, when the fruit is abundant, sweet and not as expensive as during the winter. The problem is there are always many recipes to be made and cherry season is, unfortunately, too short.

One of the recipes I’d been meaning to make for a while was this cake from Delicious Australia, which combines two passions of mine: cherries and marzipan. The cake turned out moist and flavorsome, perfumed with orange blossom water, which is something I love, but if you’re not into it just replace it with vanilla extract. I found the pistachios on the top of the cake to be a bit too much and, as much as I love these nuts I don’t think they’re an interesting addition here – I liked the cake better without them.

It certainly paid off to wait months to prepare this wonderful cake, as much as it paid off to go to sleep at 2 a.m. to see the brilliant Leonard DiCaprio receive a Golden Globe. :)

Cherry, pistachio and marzipan cake
slightly adapted from the stunning Delicious Australia

Cake:
300g cherries, pitted, finely chopped
150g marzipan, chopped into 1cm pieces – I used homemade
150g all-purpose flour + 1 tablespoon, extra, for dusting the cherries
200g unsalted butter, softened
185g granulated sugar
finely grated zest of 1 orange
1 teaspoon orange blossom water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs
100g almond meal
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
50g unsalted pistachio kernels, lightly toasted, chopped
icing sugar, for dusting

Syrup:
juice of the orange zested for the cake
1 teaspoon orange blossom water
1 tablespoon granulated sugar

Preheat the oven to 170°C. Butter a 20cm (8in) springform cake pan (I used a pan with a removable bottom), line the bottom with a circle of baking paper, then wrap the outside with foil (this will prevent batter from leaking).
Toss cherries and marzipan in the extra 1 tablespoon of flour and set aside.
In a large bowl, beat the butter, granulated sugar and orange zest with an electric mixer for 3-5 minutes until thick and pale, then beat in orange blossom water and the vanilla.
Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Fold in flour, almond meal, baking powder and salt, then stir through half the marzipan and cherries. Spread mixture into pan, sprinkle over remaining marzipan and cherries, then gently press into the batter, making sure they’re just covered.
Bake for 20 minutes, then reduce oven to 160°C and bake for a further 50-60 minutes until light golden and cooked through.
Meanwhile, for the syrup: place all the ingredients in a saucepan over low heat, then cook, stirring, for 1-2 minutes until sugar has dissolved. Increase heat to medium and cook for a further 1-2 minutes until thick and syrupy.
Pierce cake all over with a skewer, then drizzle over warm syrup. Sprinkle with pistachios and dust with icing sugar. Cool slightly, then remove cake from the pan and cool completely before serving.

Serves 6-8 – I made the exact recipe above, but baked the cake at 180°C/350°F the entire time (total of 60 minutes)

Marzipan cookies and less is more

As I drove to work the other day listening to one of my favorite songs I started thinking about the two or three episodes of The X Factor I’ve watched recently and how everyone seems to sing in the absolute same tone – I don’t think that one has to have Christina Aguilera’s voice to make good music (and let’s just say that the girl shouldn’t feel very proud about her repertoire), and my humble ears would choose Nina Persson’s soft voice over all that screaming any day now. :)

As for baking, in a similar “less is more” moment, I baked these delicious and incredibly addictive cookies: only a handful of ingredients resulted in chewy and moist treats, and I found it hard to stop at one. Or four. :D

Marzipan cookies
from the always beautiful and delicious Gourmet Traveller

250g almond meal
200g granulated sugar
pinch of salt
2 egg whites
finely grated zest of 1 orange
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
100g pure icing sugar

Preheat oven to 190°C/375°F. Line a large baking sheet with baking paper.
Combine almond meal, granulated sugar, salt, egg whites, zest and vanilla in a large bowl and mix to a soft dough. Turn out onto a work surface and roll into a cylinder about 2cm thick. Sieve icing sugar onto work surface, roll dough in icing sugar and cut into 32 pieces. Roll each piece into a thin log, then form into an "S" shape (I never managed to do so, so I shaped my cookies as small cylinders). Dust cookies lightly with icing sugar and place cookies 2.5cm (1in) apart onto prepared sheet and bake until golden (10-15 minutes). Cool on a wire rack.
The cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Makes 32

Easy almond cake for Nigella

Yesterday morning, while editing some of my photos, I read the shocking news that Nigella had been abused by her husband at a restaurant – that made me angry and sad. If that douche bag feels comfortable enough to do such things in public, I wonder what he does to her inside their home, when no one is watching. I felt so sorry for Nigella, for her kids. My heart goes out to them, and I hope she is able to get out of this terrible situation soon. I try to be a balanced person and I know that violence is not the answer, but a guy that grabs his wife by the neck four times and then say that it was just a “playful tiff” deserves a lesson – I very painful one.

Because the lovely British cook is on my thoughts today I bring you this delicious cake, so simple and easy, from one of Nigella’s cookbooks, the wonderful "How to Be a Domestic Goddess".

Easy almond cake
from the always delicious and foolproof How to Be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking

250g unsalted butter, softened
250g marzipan, softened – I used homemade
¾ cup (150g) granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon almond extract (optional)
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
6 large eggs
1 cup + 1 tablespoon (150g) all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F. Butter a round 20cm (8in) cake pan (with high sides), line the bottom with a circle of baking paper and butter the paper as well.
In a food processor, process the marzipan, butter and sugar together until smooth. Add the almond and vanilla extracts and process again. Add the eggs, one at a time, down the funnel, processing after each addition. Add the flour, baking powder and salt and process until incorporated. Transfer to the prepared pan and smooth the surface. Bake for 50 minutes (checking from 40) or until golden and risen and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool completely in the pan over a wire rack, then carefully unmold. Dust with icing sugar and serve.

Serves 8-10

Apple and marzipan rolls + an interesting read

One of my favorite things to do is reading about how movies are made and especially how directors and actors are chosen for each project; there are characters impossible to imagine being played by someone else – can you picture Tom Selleck as Indiana Jones? – while with others I would have taken a different route: for instance, I would have chosen Vanessa Williams to play Storm instead of Halle Berry.
Ryan Adams’ has posted an excerpt from William Friedkin’s memoir in which he describes the casting for “The Exorcist” – it’s a very interesting read. I find Ellen Burstyn’s performance in that movie one of the best I have seen in my entire life and it is amazing to find out that she hadn’t even been considered for the part. It is also curious how Jason Miller got cast as Father Karras. Friedkin is a director I admire – can’t wait to watch “Killer Joe” – and I ended up adding his memoir to my already too long wish list. :)

***

Ever since making Paul Hollywood’s marzipan for the first time I’ve been enjoying recipes I had bookmarked for years – these rolls come from Waitrose’s website and are every bit the delicious treat I’d imagined them to be.

Apple and marzipan rolls
slightly adapted from Waitrose

2 ½ cups (350g) all purpose flour
7g dried yeast
¼ cup (50g) granulated sugar
1 large egg
100g unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup (80ml) whole milk, lukewarm
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
200g golden marzipan, grated – I used homemade, recipe here
1 large Granny Smith apple
½ cup (75g) golden raisins
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
icing sugar, for dusting

Place the flour, yeast and sugar in the large bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook. Make a well in the center and add the egg, butter, milk and vanilla and mix to combine. Mix at low-medium speed until it starts to form a soft dough. Continue mixing for 5-6 minutes or until dough is smooth and elastic – or knead by hand for about 10 minutes. Transfer to a lightly buttered large bowl, cover with plastic wrap and leave in a warm place for about 1½ hours or until the dough has doubled in size. Meanwhile, butter a 23cm (9in) round cake pan.
Punch the dough with your fist to deflate, then tip it out onto a floured surface. Roll the dough out to a 40x20cm (16x8in) rectangle. Scatter the marzipan over the dough to within 1cm (½in) of the edges. Peel, core and chop the apple and scatter over the marzipan. Mix the raisins with the cinnamon and sprinkle them over the apples. Starting from a long edge, roll up the dough into a long, thin sausage shape.
Using a small sharp knife, cut the dough into 8 even-sized pieces. Place them with their cut sides face-up in the prepared tin. Cover loosely with a piece of buttered plastic wrap and leave to rise again (prove) for about 1 hour until the buns have risen and become tightly packed in the tin (mine took 2 hours to prove). Towards the end of the proving time, preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F.
Uncover the buns and bake for about 30 minutes until deep golden. Cover with foil towards the end of the cooking time if they start to over-brown. Cool in the pan over a wire rack for 15 minutes then carefully unmold onto the rack. Dust with icing sugar and serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes 8

Lemon and almond buns + Dragonette

I have many favorite TV shows and one of them is “Chuck’s Day Off” – not only because the food looks delicious but also because to me it has the best soundtrack among the cooking shows. After watching several episodes, I noticed that one album cover kept appearing at the end of the show, and after listening to some of the tracks I completely fell in love with Dragonette’s “Fixin To Thrill”. My favorite tracks are “Don’t Be Funny”, “Pick Up the Phone” and “Easy” – impossible not to love a song that starts with that beat and the words “you love me like a bull in a china shop”. :)

I sometimes have the feeling that I get addicted to certain things much too easily, like I did to Dragonette’s album and to Paul Hollywood’s marzipan – I have used it yet again, this time as a filling to Dan Lepard’s insanely tender and delicious lemon buns.

Lemon and almond buns
slightly adapted from Dan Lepard’s column at The Guardian

400g strong white flour – I used all purpose flour
½ teaspoon table salt
finely grated zest of 2 lemons
2 teaspoons dried yeast
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
100g unsalted butter
1 cup (240ml) whole milk
1 large egg
250g marzipan – I used homemade
melted butter, toasted slivered almonds and icing sugar, to finish

Start the night before: in a large bowl, mix together the flour, salt, lemon zest, yeast and sugar. Melt the butter and beat with the milk and egg. Pour into the dry ingredients and mix everything together until a soft, sticky dough forms – I used the Kitchen Aid with the dough hook for that. Mix thoroughly, scrape any remaining dough from your fingers, cover the bowl tightly and leave in the refrigerator until morning.
Remove dough from the refrigerator and set aside at room temperature for 30 minutes. Line a 25cm (10in) square baking pan with foil, leaving two overhangs on opposite sides, and butter the foil – I used a 20x30cm (8x12in) baking pan.
Lightly flour a work surface, knead the dough until smooth (again, the Kitchen Aid), then roll to a long rectangle about 70x10cm (28x4in). Roll the marzipan into a 70cm (28in) cylinder, place along the centre of the dough, then roll the dough around it to seal*. Leave the dough to relax for 10 minutes, then cut into nine slices and place in three rows, without turning them on end, into the prepared pan. Leave to rise for 1 ½ hours or until doubled in volume.
Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F. Bake the buns for about 35 minutes or until golden. Cool in the pan then brush with melted butter, sprinkle with the almonds and dust with the icing sugar.

* the buns turned out great, but if I were to make them again I would finely chop the marzipan and spread them all over the dough rectangle (as if making cinnamon rolls) then roll it – that way the marzipan flavor would be more dispersed in the dough

Makes 9

Apple, berry, almond and chocolate crumble

Since almonds, berries and apple worked so beautifully in tart form, I could not wait to try this crumble: all those flavors combined without the need of making pastry – not that I don’t like making pastry, I actually enjoying it very much, but when the need for something sweet is urgent there’s no time for chilling pastry. :D

I was also very intrigued by the addition of chocolate to the crumble topping but have to say I don’t think it was a nice idea here: if you want to see it for yourself go ahead and try it, but when I make this crumble again it will be sans chocolate – and with more almonds to boot.

Apple, berry, almond and chocolate crumble
from the always glorious Delicious - Australia

1kg Granny Smith apples (about 5)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
200g frozen mixed berries
100g brown sugar
½ teaspoon ground ginger
200g marzipan, chopped – I used homemade
custard or ice cream to serve

Almond crumble:
200g unsalted butter, cold and chopped
250g all purpose flour
50g brown sugar
pinch of salt
1/3 cup almonds, chopped
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
75g dark chocolate, chips or chunks

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F. For the crumble, place the butter and flour in a large bowl and rub together with your fingertips to form coarse crumbs. Using a fork, gently stir in the sugar, salt, almonds, cinnamon and chocolate. Set aside.
Peel and roughly chop the apples, then place in an 8-cup capacity ovenproof dish. Toss with lemon juice, then carefully stir in berries, sugar and ginger. Dot with marzipan then top with the crumble.
Place the dish on a baking tray and bake for 45 minutes until the topping is golden and the fruit is tender. Stand for five minutes, then spoon into bowls and serve with custard or ice cream.

Serves 6-8

Marzipan brownies

I might be someone who loves sweets (and this blog is proof of that), but even I know there’s a certain limit to be considered: to avoid the risk of eating the marzipan left from the berry muffins I set up to find other delicious recipes to use the marzipan in, and after reading something about a chocolate marzipan cake somewhere – I am getting old and I don’t remember where, sorry – I thought that marzipan brownies would be a fantastic idea; since I wanted fudgy brownies and not cakey ones, I reached for Alice Medrich’s chocolate bible – because I was almost out of dark chocolate, I used her fabulous and super famous cocoa brownies as a vehicle for the marzipan; a tiny bit of almond extract, a sprinkling of flaked almonds and voilà: some pretty good marzipan brownies.

Marzipan brownies
adapted from the amazing Bittersweet: Recipes and Tales from a Life in Chocolate

210g unsalted butter
1 ¾ cups + 2 tablespoons (375g) granulated sugar
1 1/3 cups (120g) unsweetened cocoa powder (natural or Dutch-process)
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
½ teaspoon almond extract
3 cold large eggs
¾ cup (105g) all-purpose flour
100g marzipan, chopped in small cubes
3 tablespoons flaked almonds

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Line the bottom and sides of a 20x30cm (12x8in) baking pan with foil, leaving an overhang on two opposite sides. Butter the foil.

In a medium heatproof bowl, add the butter and set on top of a large sauce pan with barely simmering water. Melt the butter, then add sugar and salt, and stir until well combined. Next add the cocoa powder and stir until mixture is smooth and hot enough that you want to remove your finger fairly quickly after dipping it in to test. Remove the bowl from the skillet and set aside briefly until the mixture is only warm, not hot.
Stir in the vanilla and the almond extract with a wooden spoon. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring vigorously after each one. When the batter looks thick, shiny, and well blended, add the flour and stir until you cannot see it any longer, then beat vigorously for 40 strokes with the wooden spoon or a rubber spatula. Stir in the nuts, if using. Spread half the batter in the prepared pan. Spread the marzipan pieces evenly over the batter, then cover with the remaining batter. Sprinkle with the flaked almonds.
Bake until a toothpick plunged into the center emerges slightly moist with batter, 25-30 minutes. Let cool completely on a rack.
Lift up the ends of the parchment or foil liner, and transfer the brownies to a cutting board. Cut into 16 or 25 squares.

Makes 24

Marzipan and berry muffins with amazingly good homemade marzipan

Certain things to me are revelations, and Paul Hollywood’s fabulous homemade marzipan was one: when I was little every time my German grandmother came to visit she would bring small boxes of marzipan – she loved the stuff. Soon I began loving marzipan, too, and that was pretty much the only good thing about grandma’s visits (let’s just say she wasn’t a pleasant person to be around).

Grandma Frida stopped visiting after my mom died, and then a few years later she was gone, too, and that was the end of my marzipan-flavored days. As a grown-up I began searching for that delicious marzipan, the one I ate as a kid, and to my disappointment the versions I found tasted nothing like it – they were poorly made artificial versions of the almond paste and tasted of anything but almonds.
Last week, though, flipping through my newest purchase, I found a recipe for marzipan that seemed easy; since I had all the ingredients at home I gave it a go immediately, and the result was a thick, luscious marzipan, with an amazing texture and equally fantastic flavor, so good I had to hide it in my fridge otherwise I could have easily eaten a pound of it in one seating.

The combination of raspberries, strawberries and marzipan involved by a very tender and almond-y batter is what makes these muffins the best I’ve ever made; I would love to tell you how addictively flavorsome the warm marzipan bits tasted inside the muffins, but I’ll stop before I drool over my keyboard. :)

Marzipan and berry muffins
slightly adapted from the gorgeous Delicious - Australia

¾ cup + 1 tablespoon (185g) unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup + 2 ½ tablespoons (180g) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¾ cup (105g) all purpose flour, sifted
1 ½ cups (150g) almond meal
pinch of salt
100g marzipan, chopped into small cubes – I used homemade, recipe follows
100g fresh strawberries, chopped into small cubes
100g frozen raspberries, unthawed
icing sugar, to serve

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Line a 12-hole muffin pan (each cavity holds 1/3 cup batter) with paper cases, or generously butter the pan cavities.
Beat butter and sugar in an electric mixer until thick and pale. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla. Fold in the flour, almond meal and salt, then fold in the marzipan. Divide the batter among muffin holes.
Scatter the berries over the top (I pushed them a little into the batter) , then bake muffins for 25-30 minutes or until golden and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then very gently unmold them. Transfer to a wire rack.
Dust the muffins with icing sugar and before serving – these muffins taste even more amazing while still warm.

Makes 12

Homemade marzipan
from the beautiful and fantastic How to Bake

1 large egg
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
90g superfine sugar*
1 cup (140g) icing sugar, sifted
220g almond meal
finely grated zest of 1 orange

In a small bowl, lightly beat the egg and vanilla with a fork.
In a large bowl, mix together the superfine sugar, the icing sugar and the almond meal. Add the zest and the egg mixture and combine first with a wooden spoon, then with your hands. Knead the marzipan until smooth. Form into a ball, wrap well in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or overnight.
Marzipan can be kept well wrapped in the refrigerator for up to 1 month.

*I always use granulated sugar in my recipes, but I did not want a grainy texture in the marzipan, therefore I blitzed the sugar in the food processor before using it

Makes 500g