I saw a great looking recipe in an Ocado magazine. It was for a Cherry Almond Loaf Cake. The recipe looked very enticing so I decided I would try it. Using almond flour is something I always like in a cake. But the addition of glacé cherries and cubes of marzipan promised such a great cake.
Just as I like the recipe promised to be easy to make. Luckily I already had all the ingredients on hand too. So it was easy to decide to try the recipe.
Not only is it and easy recipe, but it doesn’t take long to prepare either. The loaf cake can be in the oven in less than 30 minutes. Then it is just a matter of waiting up to 70 minutes for it to bake. Of course the biggest challenge is to allow it to cool completely before slicing it.
The process is simple too, creaming butter and sugar, and then adding eggs to create the wet mixture. Then the dry ingredients are added too, and fold in, before being spooned into a prepared loaf pan.
My Bake
The cake looked great when it came out of the oven. I allowed it to cool for 10 minutes. Then I took it out of the loaf tin and placed it on a wire rack to cool completely. The cherries and marzipan were nicely distributed throughout the cake. It sliced well and had a great flavour. The mixture of fruity cherry and rich marzipan worked so well together.
Another very good loaf cake, which is easy to make is Madeira Cake – Easy Baking.
Cherry Almond Loaf Cake
Course: Cakes, DessertsCuisine: DessertDifficulty: Easy10
servings30
minutes1
hour10
minutesIngredients
170g(12 tbsp) softened unsalted butter
165g(3/4 cup + 1 tbsp) caster sugar
130g(1 cup minus 2 tbsp, based on scooping packed flour into a 250ml cup) self raising flour. (see note below for using plain flour)
100g(1 cup) ground almond
3 medium eggs(large in USA)
200g(3/4 cup) glace cherries, halved
150g(5 1/4 oz about 3/4 cup when diced) marzipan cut into small cubes
Flaked almonds to sprinkle on the top, to taste.
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/350F.
- Grease and line a 2lb/900g loaf pan.
- Place the softened butter and sugar into a large bowl and cream them together until light and fluffy. This can be with a hand mixer or manually.
- Add the eggs, one and a time, and whisk into the butter mixture until fully combined.
- Mix the ground almonds into the flour.
- Add the cherries(retaining about 10 halves for later) and marzipan and toss around to coat in the flour and almonds.
- Pour that dry mixture into the wet and fold in gently until fully combined.
- Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan and spread into the corners and level it off.
- Place the retained cherry halves on the top of the cake batter.
- Sprinkle flaked almonds on the top, as many or few as you wish.
- Bake in the oven for 65 to 70 minutes, until the cake has risen nicely and a skewer comes out clean.
- Remove the loaf cake from the oven and allow it to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before slicing.
Notes
- If you don’t have self raising flour you can use the same amount of plain/all purpose flour and stir into it 6g(1 1/2 tsp) of baking powder. That will work well as a substitute.