Pistachio and almond cake

Sometimes, a cake comes about simply because you have an ingredient that you are desperate to use.  My wonderful friend Jasmin has recently been on holiday to Sicily and, amongst other foodie goodies, kindly bought me back some intriguingly green pistachio marzipan.  It has sat on my baking shelf for almost a month as I mused how best to use it…and now I’m ready!

The marzipan wasn’t enough to use around a battenburg-style cake so I decided on baking it into a nutty sponge cake.  I rather like the idea of the cake looking like a normal sponge only to reveal a layer of marzipan when cut into.  Enclosing it entirely in the batter also meant that it retained its bold colour.

No icing needed for this rich fragrant sponge; the topping is simply some chopped pistachios mixed with honey.  I put this on top of the sponge while it was still warm so any excess honey would be absorbed into the sponge making it even more soft and moist.  Cakes like this age so well too as the nuts release their oils over time and the flavour and texture is enhanced.

If you don’t have (or indeed, don’t like) marzipan, the cake would still be lovely without it.  You could have it as a plain sponge, or cut the sponge through on baking and fill with buttercream.  What I hadn’t banked on (this is my last attempt to sway you to use marzipan!), was that the sponge under the marzipan absorbed the oils from it as it baked and ended up crisp and delicious.

Personally, I see this as more of a dessert cake simply because of the rich nuttiness of the sponge.  It isn’t a dry crumbed sponge.  Serve either warm or at room temperature with ice cream, whipped cream or even some natural yoghurt.

Thanks for the gift Jasmin - wish I could send you a slice!

Ingredients

For the cake:

250g unsalted butter, at room temperature
200g caster sugar
4 eggs
120g ground almonds
100g ground pistachios – make this yourself by grinding pistachios to fine powder in a food processor
50g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
150g pistachio or almond marzipan

For the topping:

60g pistachios, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon runny honey – just enough to coat the nuts

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C/fan oven 160C/350F/gas mark 4.

Line a 20cm round springform tin with baking paper.

Beat together the butter and sugar until light and whippy.  Do not skimp on this stage – keep going until the mix is pale and fluffy.

Beat in the eggs one at a time.

Beat in the ground almonds and ground pistachios.

Beat in the flour and baking powder.

Spoon just over half the batter into the prepared tin and level the surface.

Roll the marzipan out into a disc slightly smaller than the size of the tin – you want the batter to completely engulf it, so it’s a surprise when you cut into the cake.

Lay the marzipan on the batter.

Spoon the remaining batter into the tin and level the surface.

Bake for approximately 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean – don’t worry if it takes longer; mine took almost an hour.

NB. When you bake the cake, especially if you use a springform tin, you will see the nut oils dripping from the tin – we’re only talking a little, not a flood, but it’s a good idea to either stand the cake tin on a baking sheet, or place a baking sheet on the shelf below with some kitchen paper to catch any drips.

Now make the topping: roughly chop the pistachios.

Mix with enough honey to coat the nuts but not pool in the bowl.

Spoon onto the top of the cake.

Leave to cool for 20 minutes in the tin, before de-tinning and leaving to cool completely on a wire rack.

Serve in generous slices.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.

Almond spice cake

This cake is so almondy and flavoursome it’s a nut-lover’s dream.  The almond in the cake comes predominantly from the marzipan layer baked into the batter.  I made the cake square and, whether pastry or marzipan,  I am totally unable to roll things out into anything but circles.  Don’t panic if you’re the same – simply cut the curvy edges off and use for patching!

The fudgy glaze sets to a crisp shell and adds lovely texture and flavour.  It was hugely popular with my eatership and I will definitely use it again on future cakes.

If you’re not mad on cinnamon, use another spice of your choice – nutmeg or even ginger would work well; as would simply increasing the mixed spice.

I had a couple of slices of the cake left over (this should indicate that it’s a BIG cake!) so, on a subsequent evening, gently warmed them in the oven and served with custard for dessert.  Hardly a shocking newsflash but, guess what, it really worked!

 

Ingredients

For the marzipan:

115g ground almonds
55g icing sugar
55g caster sugar
1 teaspoons almond extract
1 egg, separated

For the cake:

260g unsalted butter, at room temperature
260g caster sugar
5 eggs
340g self raising flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon mixed spice
115g flaked almond

For the topping:

75g unsalted butter
150g light brown sugar
3 tablespoons double cream
50g flaked almonds

To serve: thick cream

Method

Start by making the marzipan: Place the almonds and both sugars into a bowl and stir until combined. I did this in my Kitchenaid mixer.

Add the egg yolks and almond extract and mix until well combined.

Add a spoonful of the egg white and beat, continue to add tablespoonfuls of egg white until the marzipan forms into a firm ball.

Roll the marzipan out to a 20cm square between two sheets of clingfilm  – this means you don’t have to add any more icing sugar to it, plus peel off only one sheet of clingfilm when you wish to position on the cake – you have far more control over it while the clingfilm supports it (obviously put it face down on the cake i.e. so the clingfilm is on top!)

Peel off the clingfilm.

Trim the marzipan to size then put to one side.

Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/gas mark 4.

Line a 20cm square tin with baking paper.

Place all the cake ingredients, except for the almonds, into a large mixing bowl and beat together until smooth and well combined.

Fold in the almonds.

Spoon just over half the batter into the prepared tin and level the surface.

Gently place the rolled marzipan onto the batter and smooth it down if it’s crinkled or curled up anywhere.

Place the remaining batter on top of the marzipan and level the surface.

Bake for approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Leave to cool, in the tin, for 20-30 minutes before removing the tin and leaving the cake to cool completely on a wire rack.

Now make the topping: heat the butter, sugar and cream in a saucepan over a medium heat until they are blended – stir regularly.

Bring the mix to the boil then remove from the heat.

Place a sheet of foil or kitchen paper on your work top, then stand the cake on a wire rack directly above the paper (to catch any drips).

Drizzle the topping over the cake then sprinkle the almonds on top.

Leave to set for approximately 20 minutes.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created. 

Eat.

Christmas cake

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and will have a happy new year too. I stuck to my classics this Christmas, with mince pies, gingerbread men and Christmas cake. I’ve posted them all many times before so thought I’d spare you another trip down memory lane!

I did make some tweaks with my Christmas cake this year so thought I should document them...if only to aide my aging brain come October 2012 when I’m desperately trying to recall what I did!

I stuck with my classic Christmas cake and fondant icing recipe and used brandy as the spirit in the cake this year. The holly decoration is made from leftover fondant icing coloured red and green – I used Dr Oetker natural colouring.

For the marzipan I used the dead easy no-faff recipe that I first tried at Easter with my simnel cake – it tastes divine and is sooooo good natured to roll out. I’ve never had such a lovely smooth covering:

Normally, I only cover the top of the cake, but this year I decided to do a full covering...I have to admit it does look nicer when you cut a slice. I think the key to it is getting the marzipan and icing thin enough so that it doesn’t over power the cake.

Apologies for the slightly fuzzy photos, but it was rather late on Christmas day when I suddenly realised, “oh bother, I am yet to photograph my Christmas cake”. Yes, that’s exactly how the thought formed in my mind.....!

Famous Faces’ Favourite Fancies – Fruit cake and marzipan

Chances are if you’ve ever been at home during the week and turned on the television, you will have come across the legend David Dickinson hosting either Bargain Hunt or, more recently, Dickinson’s Real Deals. What this man doesn’t know about antiques simply isn’t worth knowing but it’s his flamboyant style and eccentric turns of phrase that have made him such a well-loved TV personality. Items aren’t a bargain they’re “cheap as chips” and female contestants are always called ‘girls’ regardless of their age.

I knew that any cake selected by ‘The Duke’ would be a right bobby dazzler and he didn’t disappoint. He sent a very lovely reply to my query re his favourite cake written with a proper ink pen in artistic and flowing handwriting – it really made my day receiving it!

David selected a Christmas cake. He reminisces about his grandmother making the fruit cake a couple of months before Christmas, then later making the marzipan. I love the way he describes licking out the bowl as “heaven” – a sentiment I can totally understand! This was the cake that stood out in his memory but he adds that having an ‘old fashioned’ gran, he was never short of wonderful cake. Yet again, it highlights to me that cake is so cemented in our psyches probably as much for the people we connect it to as the actual cake.

To set about making The Duke’s request I used my Christmas fruit cake recipe and a new marzipan recipe to make a Simnel cake. Simnel cake is a traditional Easter cake comprising of fruit cake with a marzipan topping. The marzipan balls on top symbolise the apostles (minus Judas). I’m not really one for religious symbolism so jazzed the design up with some chicks. Incidentally, when the CCD (Caked Crusader’s Da) saw the cake he asked why it had pickled onions on it!

The recipe for the cake can be found here.

Now anyone who read my recent Battenberg cake post will know that I sometimes struggle with marzipan. Not any more! I came across this easy-peasy recipe and, what do you know? It produces awesome marzipan in a matter of minutes, and it’s all made in one bowl – no heating eggs in bowls balanced on saucepans. The only small issue to point out is that it contains raw egg, so anyone slightly vulnerable with health issues shouldn’t eat it. The recipe is set out below.

My other Easter bakes were :

Easter biscuits (recipe can be found HERE) – they’re so tasty I have to make them every year!

Strawberry, blackberry and raspberry cheesecake (recipe can be found HERE) – no reason other than it’s delicious!

Ingredients

For the marzipan:

230g ground almonds
115g icing sugar
115g caster sugar
2 teaspoons almond extract
2 eggs, separated

Method

Place the almonds and both sugars into a bowl and stir until combined. I did this in my Kitchenaid mixer.

Add the egg yolks and almond extract and mix until well combined.

Add a spoonful of the egg white and beat, continue to add tablespoonfuls of egg white until the marzipan forms into a firm ball.

Roll the marzipan out between two sheets of clingfilm – this means you don’t have to add any more icing sugar to it, plus peel off only one sheet of clingfilm when you wish to position on the cake – you have far more control over it while the clingfilm supports it (obviously put it face down on the cake i.e. so the clingfilm is on top!)

Peel off the clingfilm.

Cut the marzipan to size.

For this cake I rolled out about half of the marzipan to cover the top of the cake and used the rest for the balls.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have made.

Eat.

Battenberg (or Battenburg) cake

I still can’t decide which spelling to go with for this cake; the more I think about it the more both spellings end up looking equally wrong (if I was of a more optimistic bent I might have said “equally right”).

It is generally accepted that Battenberg cake was invented in honour of the marriage, in 1884, between Queen Victoria’s granddaughter to Prince Louis of Battenberg. The four squares symbolise the four Battenberg princes. However, that doesn’t help to explain why two of the squares are pink, and two yellow…but they always are (except when a silly baker doesn’t put in enough food colouring...ahem).

When you’re making a classic you have to follow the rules so I used food colouring in this recipe - it simply wouldn’t be a Battenberg without it. Sadly, I didn’t put enough so had an orange rather than pink sponge, but it still looked rather attractive and had that all important colour contrast to achieve the chequerboard effect. Jamming up the sponges is one of the more fun parts of the process:

It’s worth taking the time to make your own marzipan for this cake; it will mean extra work and home made is -in my experience - harder to roll out but it is so superior in taste, and that’s what really matters. Not sure if I made a mistake or the recipe was wrong but I found my marzipan far too soft to roll and had to add a lot more icing sugar. Here’s what it started out looking like:

I find you can get away with a softer marzipan (although not as soft as the photo above!!) if you’re just covering the top of a fruit cake but this needed to be more firm to wrap the sponge. There may have been swearing but I persevered and kept kneading more and more icing sugar into the marzipan and I ended up with something, still sticky, but capable of rolling:

Once I’d cursed everything I could think of and sworn I would never make marzipan again, I tasted it...it tasted good!

The combination of classic sponge, apricot jam and soft almond paste is a joy – every mouthful delivers flavour and texture. While mine may not be the prettiest Battenberg you’ll ever see I will venture it’s one of the tastiest. Just make it the day before you want to eat it – that way the pain of the marzipan will be but a distant memory!

Being a caketinoholic (it is a proper addiction as my cupboards and bank statements prove) I used my Battenberg cake tin which takes the effort out of the process. You could, of course, use a normal square tin and make dividers out of foil.

Sept 2011 – Battenberg update

I made this cake again with pink colouring – if anything I over compensated for my colour failure last time as you’ll notice it’s somewhat lurid!

Had a much easier time using my no-bake marzipan recipe. It rolled easily and tasted divine.

Ingredients

For the cake:

175g unsalted butter, at room temperature
175g caster sugar
3 eggs
175g self raising flour
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
red food colouring
Apricot jam

For the marzipan - see Sept 2011 update above for easier recipe:

115g caster sugar
115g icing sugar, plus a lot more (potentially) to bring into a dough and for rolling
2 eggs plus 1 egg yolk e.g. 3 egg yolks and 1 white
2 tablespoons lemon juice
265g ground almonds

Method

Preheat the oven to 190˚C/fan oven 170˚C/375˚F/Gas mark 5.

Grease a Battenberg cake tin or a 20cm square tin. If using the square tin use a rigid strip of foil or baking paper to divide the tin in half.

Beat the butter and sugar together until pale and creamy. Don’t skimp on this stage as it’s the most important time to get air into the cake.

Beat in the eggs, one at a time.

Stir in the flour and vanilla.

Divide the batter into two separate bowls. You can weigh these to ensure the batter is evenly divided.

Add some red food colouring to one bowl of batter – add enough so that the cake is starting to look red, it will bake paler. I didn’t add anywhere near enough and got an orange sponge!

Spoon the batters into their separate sections of the prepared tin and level the surface.

Bake for approximately 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the sponge comes out clean. Mine took 30 minutes.

Place the tin on a wire rack and allow the cake to cool for 10 minutes, then turn the cakes out and leave to cool completely.

When cool level the surfaces so that your cake is flat and even on all sides. If you used the square tin with a central divider, now is the time to cut each coloured sponge in two – divide them by cutting down the longest length.

Store in an airtight container until you are ready to assemble the cake.

Now make the marzipan: place a bowl over a pan of simmering water, ensuring that the water cannot touch the bowl.

Place both sugars, egg and egg yolk in the bowl and whisk for about 10 minutes or until pale and thick.

Take the bowl off the heat and stir in the lemon juice and ground almonds. It will be very sticky and not at all like a paste that you can roll! With hindsight, this is where I should’ve added extra icing sugar to bring to a firm dough. You’re aiming for something thick enough that you can roll it out. You may need to add a lot of extra icing sugar – I did.

Wrap the marzipan in clingfilm and chill for at least 30 minutes.

Now prepare the sponges for assembling: warm the apricot jam (about 6 tablespoons) then use to glue the four canes of sponge together.

Cover the outside of the cake with apricot jam and put to one side.

Roll the chilled marzipan into a rectangle big enough to accommodate the sponge – about 30cm x 20cm should do it. I rolled the marzipan between two sheets of clingfilm. If your marzipan is still sticky dust the work surface (or clingfilm) liberally with icing sugar.

Place the cake at one end of the marzipan and roll it up ensuring that the seam is at the bottom and cutting off any excess marzipan.

If the marzipan tears at all you can patch it up with spare marzipan.

Tidy up the edges by trimming any surplus marzipan.

Serve in thick slices.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.

Christmas cake

Fruit cake is perfectly, if a little matter-of-factly, named because it is fruit and cake. I love the way that this type of cake is so packed with fruit that it’s as if the cake is only there to hold all the fruit together; it’s definitely the supporting artiste!

I like this Australian Women’s Weekly recipe as you don’t particularly have to soak the fruit in advance, nor do you have to make the cake weeks ahead of Christmas for it to mature. However, it tastes like you’ve been nurturing it and feeding it for months!

This was the first fruit cake I’ve made where I didn’t have arm and shoulder ache all day. Why? Because the CCBF (Caked Crusader’s Boyfriend) stepped forward to demonstrate his cake mixing prowess. He also cut the glace cherries.

Unlike previous years I have made the almond paste and icing. Usually I don’t bother with this but the CCM (Caked Crusader’s Ma) requested it. To strike a happy balance between paste and icing haters and lovers, I only put it on the top.

Here’s the almond paste:

The cake won’t be covered in fondant icing until later next week, or cut until Christmas day so I’ll revisit this post with some photos then.

I used some leftover almond paste to make my reindeer decorations:

You get a lot of slices out of a big cake like this:

Ingredients
For the cake:
500g sultanas
375g raisins
140g glace cherries, chopped coarsely
110g currants
2 tablespoons marmalade
125ml rum or brandy, plus 2 extra tablespoons
250g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon grated orange rind
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
200g dark brown sugar
4 eggs
300g plain flour
2 teaspoons mixed spice

For the almond paste (this quantity will comfortably cover the top of a 20cm cake. To completely cover the cake i.e. the sides too, double these quantities):

175g ground almonds
90g icing sugar
90g caster sugar
2 eggs, medium size – separate one of them
½ teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon brandy

For the fondant icing (Delia Smith gives this quantity to cover a 20cm cake. I found it sufficient to cover the top of my cake - in other words, I reckon she's being mean. If you want to cover the whole cake consider doubling the quantities):

450g icing sugar
1 egg white, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoon liquid glucose

Method

- Combine all the fruit, marmalade and the rum/brandy in a large bowl and leave to stand for as long as possible.

- Preheat the oven to 150°C/fan oven 130°C/300°F/Gas mark 2.

- Line a 23cm round springform tin with three layers of baking paper, ensuring that the baking paper comes up 5cm above the height of the tin – this will help to bake the cake evenly and stop it browning too much.

- Beat together the butter and sugar until smooth and well combined. It won’t ever become fluffy when you’re using dark sugar.

- Beat in the orange and lemon rind.

- Add the eggs, one at a time beating until well combined. If it starts to curdle add some of the flour.

- Stir in the flour and spice.

- Stir in the bowl of fruit making sure you scrape out all the booze!

- Spoon the cake into the prepared tin and level the surface.

- Bake for approximately 3 ½ hours or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. I’d check the cake after 3 hours as mine was done.

- As soon as the cake comes out of the oven brush the additional 2 tablespoons of rum/brandy over it then, wrap the tin tightly in foil. This means that the cake will steam as it cools making it ultra moist.

- The next day, remove the cake from the tin and wrap it in baking paper and foil, storing it in an airtight container. It will keep like this for months.

- Make the almond paste and cover the cake with it a week before you top it off with the fondant. This is because the almond paste will ooze almond oil and you don’t want this bleeding into your snowy white fondant.

- Place the icing and caster sugar into a bowl and stir in the whole egg and egg yolk.

- Place the bowl over a pan of simmering water – ensuring the bowl doesn’t touch the water – and whisk for approximately 10 minutes or until the mixture is thick and fluffy.

- Stand the bowl in 5cm of cold water (I did this in my sink) and whisk in the almond extract and brandy.

- Whisk until the mixture cools.

- Stir in the ground almonds and knead to form a paste. It will be very sticky at first but let it stand for 5-10 minutes and it firms up.

- Dust a sheet of baking paper with icing sugar and place the paste on it. Dust the paste with more icing sugar before placing a further sheet of baking paper on top.

- Roll out until you can cover the top of your cake.

- Brush the egg white that you didn’t use earlier over the cake. Place the cake face down onto the paste and using the cake as a guide, cut around it.

- Turn the cake back to the right way up and you should have a very neat topping of almond paste.

- Any leftover paste can be re-rolled to make decoration or simply just eat it – cook’s perks!

- Wrap the cake back up and let the almond paste settle down for a week before you ice it.

- To make the fondant icing place the icing sugar in a bowl and make a well in the centre, into which place the egg white, vanilla and glucose.

- Stir so that you gradually incorporate the icing sugar into the wet ingredients.

- When it is too stiff to stir, turn it out and knead until it becomes completely smooth. If it’s sticky add a dusting of icing sugar; too dry wet your fingers under the tap.

- Roll the fondant out on baking paper that has been dusted with icing sugar.

- Cover the cake as soon as possible and then store in an airtight tin.

- You can make the fondant up to 3 days in advance of rolling it out but then must keep it wrapped up and in the fridge. (The iced cake shouldn’t be refrigerated).

- Decorate as desired.

- Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have made.

- Eat.