In honour of National Baking Week, we’d like to share one of our favourite recipes – Nigella Lawson’s Easy Almond Cake. You might have seen a short video clip of us making it on our Instagram? If not, you can watch it here. It’s a great first bake to add to your Recipe File as it is super easy and quick to make.
One helpful tip is to let your marzipan soften before using it as it will not mix well with the cake batter if it is used at fridge temperature. If you’re lacking in time, you can cube the marzipan and give it a short blast in the microwave.
If you’d like to substitute the vanilla extract for orange extract, this would add a tasty twist to the cake.
Ingredients & Equipment:
250g softened unsalted butter
250g softened marzipan
150g caster sugar
150g self-raising flour
¼ teaspoon almond essence
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
6 large eggs
15cm Springform tube pan or patterned ring mould, buttered and floured
Method for Easy Almond Cake
Preheat oven to 170C/ gas mark 3.
Chop the butter and marzipan to make them easier to break down. Put them in the bowl of the food processor, fitted with the double-bladed knife, with the sugar. Process until combined and smooth.
Add almond essence and vanilla extract and process again. Then break the eggs one at a time through the funnel, processing again each time.
Tip the flour down the funnel, processing yet again, and then pour the mixture into the prepared tin, scraping the sides and bottom with a rubber spatula
Bake for 50 minutes but check on it from 40 minutes. Then, when the cake looks golden and cooked and a cake-tester or fine skewer comes out cleanish, remove from the oven. Leave the cake to cool in the tin before turning it out.
Hopefully, your almond cake turned out beautifully and you can now sit down, relax and enjoy a slice of your delicious home-made cake.
Nigella Lawson’s Easy Almond Cake recipe can also be found in her recipe book ‘How to Be a Domestic Goddess’.