Orange, Apricot and Marzipan Cake

I wanted to make this cake with clementines.  But the mountain load we had of them surprisingly got finished.  I have a hungry family. 

This recipe is a good way of using up any marzipan you might have left over from Christmas.  And initially that is why I chose this recipe from Gorgeous Cakes by Annie Bell.  This book is one of my most used and most loved books, yet I had never tried this recipe.  

In the words of my brother, ‘This cake was bloody awesome!’  I don’t think I’ve ever heard my brother describe a cake in such a manner.  He’s not too into them.  Well, he is sometimes; it’s just that he’s a fussy eater.  Curiously, my little sister who is also a keen baker but is extremely hard to please when it comes to cakes also liked it and praised it highly.  Even more curiously, my other sister who is easy to please and usually loves everything I bake without prejudice thought it was a bit ‘blah’, a good cake but nothing exceptional. 

You know it’s because of the fact I have such varied input and feedback that I just no longer care really about what I bake.  I bake whatever recipe catches my eye or what I want to dream up because with a family as large as mine you are always going to please some and not really affect the others either way.  I don’t think I’ve ever disappointed though, which is a good thing.  At least I’ve never been told to my face anyway.  Saying that, I do love praise for my baked goods.  I’m not ashamed to admit it – it’s one of the highlights of baking.

Now back to the cake.  This was a layered recipe with shortbread at the bottom, topped with marzipan which was spread with marmalade which in turn was topped with a sponge cake.  It was a great opportunity to use up more of the home-made marmalade I made almost a year ago - it was my first time and I think I made a wee bit too much since it's still not finished. 

 This was inspired from what is called the ‘Orange and Marzipan Cake’ recipe in Gorgeous Cakes but curiously has no orange (zest or juice) in the actual recipe.  The only orange hit you are getting is from the marmalade. 

Well I wanted to change that, if I’m going to call a cake an orange cake it needs to have orange (either zest or juice) in it to warrant the name.  So I added orange juice in place of the rum and grated some zest to impart some real orange flavour into it.  I also swapped the raisins and sultanas for dried apricots just to stick with the colour theme.

I used golden marzipan instead of normal marzipan (again the colour theme) and 250g instead of the 200g specified in the recipe.  I did this because firstly I wanted a thicker layer of marzipan than what I could see in the book, and secondly because I changed the cake tin from an 8” round to a 9” round.  I’m glad I did this because I suspected that this might be a large quantity of batter and I was right, it was.  I was very happy with the height the 9” tin gave to the cake.  If it had been even higher than this then it would have taken even longer to bake than it did (my cake took 1 hour 10 minutes to bake).  

I also completely changed the shortbread that came with the recipe.  This was because I didn’t have enough butter for the shortbread and the cake so had to substitute Stork baking spread and shortening.  Because the Stork makes baked things soft I wanted to add a little shortening in order to give the biscuit that crispness and structure that butter imparts.  I also increased the flour amount and decreased the ground almonds.  It worked very nicely and I want to make this again as a separate bake.

I have large hands for a female.  I’m quite self-conscious about them as they’re not really the most feminine part of my body.  I once had one of those Bupa health checks they give you in gyms and after testing my hand strength my personal trainer noted with some admiration that my hands were as strong as some men’s.  He meant it as a complement but I was cringing inside.  I like dainty things but dainty I ain’t.  It was a little consoling that he did say that my job/hobby at the time (I was doing Swedish massage on clients) would make the muscles in my hands very strong.

One good thing my ‘man-hands’ come in handy for is measuring.  The span of my hand from my pinky to my thumb when I stretch it as far as possible is 9” exact.  So while rolling out the marzipan it was pretty easy to keep track of how much more I had to roll.  I liked working with marzipan, it wasn’t as hard as I imagined.  Even the taste was better than what I remembered – I have bad memories of marzipan confectionary I ate as a child.  But this was nice – better than sugared almonds which I’m not too keen on.

I’m sorry, I feel like I’m rambling a bit too much here – I’ll try to keep with the cake.  Ok, this also had apricots in it and I used that trick where you coat them well in flour so that they don’t sink to the bottom during the bake but it didn’t work.  They all sank down and nestled just above the marmalade and marzipan, making a neat layer.  I’m not really sure why this didn’t work – maybe the weight of them?  Although I did dice them pretty small.  The marzipan and marmalade was truly transformed in the heat of the oven, becoming this gooey chewy layer of sweet almondy orange yumminess.  The shortbread at the bottom gave the perfect contrast to this softness with its crisp biscuit texture.  The cake was soft and flavourful but not too light or airy and with a lovely orange flavour that wasn’t too overboard.  All in all, a very nice cake.

Orange, Apricot and Marzipan Cake

For the shortbread:

·         60g Stork baking spread

·         30g shortening (Trex)

·         40g caster sugar

·         120g plain flour

·         30g ground almonds

For the cake:

·         225g unsalted butter, softened

·         225g caster sugar

·         2 oranges, zest only

·         4 eggs

·         1 egg yolk

·         90ml orange juice

·         150g dried apricots, chopped

·         225g plain flour

·         1 ½ tsp baking powder

·         250g golden marzipan

·         75g marmalade (I used about 4tbsp)

Make the shortbread by combining all the ingredients together in a food processor and reducing to a crumble.  Or do what I did and just mix by hand until you have a dough you can handle.  Press it into the base of a prepared 9” round springform cake tin.  Lay a piece of cling film over it and chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

Roll out the marzipan into a 9” circle to line the cake tin.  There’s no real technique that I can tell you – just do the best you can.  Cut the end result if you need to.  Once you’ve got your circle, place on top of the shortbread layer (remove the clingfilm first).  Spread the marmalade on top of the marzipan layer.

Preheat oven to 180C.  Cream the butter, orange zest and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs and yolk one at a time.  Add the orange juice and mix in. 

Combine the flour and baking powder together and use about a tablespoon from this to coat the chopped apricots – this is to prevent them from sinking to the bottom but mines still did (to good effect).  Fold the flour into the butter mixture and then the dried apricots.

Spread the cake batter on top of the marmalade layer and even out the top.  Bake for 1 hour, adding a foil cap after about 40 minutes if the top is browning too much.  Mines took over an hour so keep an eye on it – if it passes the skewer test it’s done.  Leave to cool in the tin before carefully removing the cake.

Upside Down Chocolate, Plum and Aniseed Cake

I have to say I’m very proud of this cake.  I wanted to create a fudgy but not too rich chocolate cake and it turned out to be even more luxuriously chocolaty and soft than expected.  This is indulgence without the heaviness.

I always wonder at how cocoa powder on its own manages to impart a chocolatiness that exceeds even that of good chocolate itself.  I remember that about a year ago I endeavoured to make a cake I saw online at a website called Epicurious.com.  This cake had one of the highest ratings on the site and is featured in their ‘Best Ever Cakes’ section.  Called the ‘Double Chocolate Layer Cake’, it uses a blend of actual chocolate and cocoa powder in the batter, and a fair good amount too.  With these quantities I had such high hopes for this cake and was so utterly disappointed.  I couldn’t believe the high ratings.  So I made it again (in a giant cupcake mould).  And again the chocolate taste was there but almost muted.   

I realised then that the chocolate cakes I had had before this one all contained cocoa powder and no chocolate, which is why I am now of the opinion that cocoa powder and not actual chocolate is what makes chocolate cake chocolaty.

I have to concede there have been a few exceptions to this since then, but not many.  The most notable being the ‘Chocolate Buttermilk Cake’ from Tea with Bea which became a firm favourite for a while and was made numerous times which is why I have gone off it a bit now (although I will come back to it I’m sure because that was a great tasting cake).

This cake is now my new favourite and I will be making it again when a chocolate cake is called for.  Unfortunately that’s not very often as my family aren’t as keen on chocolate cake as they are on a good vanilla sponge.  I know it seems crazy but it’s true.  My dad outright refuses to even taste chocolate cake anymore despite my pleas.  I just can’t understand how someone can not like chocolate cake but there you go.

This cake was amazingly soft with a beautiful tender texture.  As mentioned already, it was chocolaty but not too rich and had just the right hint of anise in the batter and the sauce.

I thought putting the aniseed flavour into the plums, cake and chocolate sauce might be a little too much but it wasn’t.  The aniseed flavour was not mild but not dominating either.  It took the chocolate taste into a new angle and one which suited it very well. 

Some people weren’t too overly keen on the addition of the plums but I loved them.  They soften even more in the oven making them very easy to cut through but still adding a new texture to each mouthful, and the plum, chocolate and aniseed flavours mesh very well together.

The chocolate sauce though was what brought it together and gave the cake a pudding-like indulgence.  I had left over ganache from my Banana, Chocolate and Caramel Tart lying in the fridge, which was very difficult to salvage as everyone started scooping spoonfuls out once they saw what it was and how it tasted.  I heated up what I could save in a saucepan until it was fluid again.   

To this I added some of the caramel sauce that the plums had been cooking in and which now had a gorgeous plumy caramel flavour and colour.  This imparted the aniseed hint to the chocolate sauce and the whole was just the perfect topping for the cake.

A word of warning though – the sauce makes this cake very messy.  I got it all over my sleeve, my mum got it all over her sleeve, a guest got it all down her front, everyone got it over their hands (despite using spoons) and one of the kids even managed to get the cordless phone covered with it.

Upside Down Chocolate, Plum and Aniseed Cake (own recipe)

For the plums:

·         4 plums, halved and de-stoned

·         50g butter

·         3-4 tbsp sugar (any sugar – I used dark muscavado)

·         5 star anise

For the cake:

·         100ml water

·         5 star anise

·         1 egg

·         50ml single cream

·         50ml Greek yoghurt

·         65ml vegetable oil

·         ¼ tsp vanilla paste

·         75g plain flour

·         50g spelt flour

·         40g cocoa powder

·         1 tsp baking powder

·         ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
200g caster sugar

·         Pinch of salt

For the chocolate sauce:

·         200g dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces

·         200ml single cream

Prepare the plums by melting the butter in a wide frying pan and adding in the sugar and the star anise.  Let the sugar melt and bubble for a bit, then add in plums cut-side down.  On a very low heat these will take about half an hour to soften up.  You need to keep these on low heat because you don’t want the caramel to burn, just gently simmer away with plum halves.  I flipped them over for about 10 minutes at one point, so that the rounded sides got some heat too.

While the plums are cooking, boil the water and star anise together so that the aniseed flavour infuses into the water.  The longer you can do this the better as the flavour will be more intense – remember to top up the water as it will evaporate – you need to have 100ml for the cake batter.

Preheat oven to 180 C, prepare a 7” round cake tin.  Place the softened plum halves in the tin with the cut sides facing down.  Spoon a little of the caramel (which turns a beautiful deep caramelised plum colour) over the plums, about 2-3 tablespoons, leaving the rest for later on.

In the meantime, prepare the cake by sifting the flours, cocoa, raising agents, sugar and salt, together in a large bowl.  Mix the wet ingredients together including 100mls of the aniseed flavoured water.  Pour the wet into the dry ingredients and mix just until all the flour has been incorporated.

Pour the batter over the plums in the tin.  Bake for about 40 minutes, checking to see if it’s done after 35 minutes.

While the cake is baking, make your chocolate sauce by placing the chocolate in a bowl and placing the cream in a saucepan over a medium heat.  You’re essentially making a soft ganache here so when the cream is just starting to boil, take it off the heat and pour it over the chocolate pieces.  Leave for about a minute then begin to gently stir with a whisk until the chocolate and cream has emulsified.  Then take the remaining plum caramel left in the pan (ideally you should have at least 2-3 tablespoons left of this) and add it to the ganache.  This should be a sauce like consistency so if you feel it is too thick add a little more cream to thin (don’t add the cream cold from the fridge - warm it up first).

Once the cake is baked leave it to cool in the tin for 20 minutes before very carefully turning it out onto a serving platter.  Pour the sauce on top and serve.

Bakewell Tart Traybake

What do you do when you have a large surplus of shortcrust pastry in the freezer?  Devise sweet ways of using it of course.

We’ve been making a lot of things with this pastry, both savoury and sweet, mainly quiches, but this is one of my favourites and just so easy to make.   

The only thing you’re making from scratch really is the almond sponge as both pastry and jam are ready made.  I did freshly grind the almonds though, instead of using pre ground almonds from a packet.  I think it gives a more crumbly texture to the cake, as freshly ground almonds aren't as fine as those from a packet.  Well, mines aren't anyway.

I went for this recipe because I love this combination of raspberry jam and almond sponge.  Do you know those Raspberry and Almond Bake slices you get in Costas?  Well that is what I order every time I nip in for some latte and that was the taste that I wanted to achieve here too.

I think I managed to achieve it with this flavour combination although the texture of the Costas treat is a lot denser than this.  You don’t have to use raspberry jam for a Bakewell, any flavour is acceptable so just choose what you like.   

Did I mention this is so easy to do?  Just roll out your pastry until it fits into a 30cm by 40 cm baking tray.  Spread over the jam, then the sponge mixture and bake.   

The hardest part of the whole recipe is judging the baking time – if you take out the bake too early you might get a raw pastry bottom, but if you take it out too late you might over bake the cake.  I found about 30 minutes in the oven at 180C was just enough to bake all the pastry and not dry out the cake.

I do think that the addition of almond essence really helps give this sponge an almond kick though, so try to incorporate that if you have some lying around.  Also, I didn’t use sweet shortcrust pastry, just the normal unsweetened kind and I loved the way the plain pastry tasted against the sweet jam and sponge.

Bakewell Tart Traybake (adapted from here)

·         500g shortcrust pastry

·         250g raspberry jam (I used half a 454g jar but you can use more to create a thicker layer of jam)

·         200g butter, softened

·         200 caster sugar

·         ¼ tsp almond essence  

·         4 eggs

·         100g plain flour

·         1 tsp baking powder

·         100g freshly ground almonds

Preheat the oven to 180C, prepare a 30cm x 40cm baking tray.

Roll out the pastry until it just fits into the baking tray – it doesn’t have to be exact but try to make it bigger rather than smaller so that you can fit it up the sides.

Beat the butter, sugar and almond essence together until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Combine the flour, baking powder and ground almonds together and fold these into the butter mixture.

Spread the jam over the pastry, spreading it as evenly as possible with the back of a teaspoon.

Spread the almond sponge mixture over the jam layer trying to cover it as much as possible so that it doesn’t show.

Bake for about 30 minutes.  Allow to cool in tin before slicing.