Lemon and marzipan drizzle cake

I had a quiet Saturday planned and whilst being extremelly lazy and watching TV in the afternoon, I was craving my guilty pleasure of marzipan. Whilst I'll admit to cutting a couple of slices off a block and eating them on the sofa, I thought of a better way to indulge my craving. I decided to make a lemon and marzipan drizzle cake. The idea with this is that the marzipan (and additional almonds) replace some of the flour.

What you will need
115g unsalted butter, at room temperature
100g caster sugar
Zest 2 lemons, juice 1/2 lemon
85g marzipan, chopped into small chunks
2 large free-range eggs
75g self-raising flour
50g ground almonds
1 tea spoon of baking powder
For the drizzle
Juice 1.5 lemons
2 table spoons icing sugar


Pre heat the oven to 160 degrees. Beat the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy, then add the lemon zest and juice, and the marzipan pieces.

Beat in the eggs one at a time and slowly. The mixture might seperate because of the lemon juice, however it bounces back when the flour is added. Stir through the flour, almonds and baking powder, and fold in until smooth.

Transfer the mix to the cake tin (I used a loaf tin)and bake in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes. Turn down the oven to 150 degrees and bake for a further 20-25 minutes.

About 5 minutes before the end of cooking time, make the drizzle. Put the lemon juice and sugar in a pan, and heat until steaming. When the cake is cooked, use a skewer to pierce it all over and pour over the syrup. You may need to leave the cake for the syrup to be absorbed. Once all the liquid has been absorbed, remove the cake from the tin and leave to cool completely.

Gipsy Spread won't get home from work until later. I wonder if he'll like the cake, seeing as he hates marzipan; although, oddly he does love the flour-less cakes. Our wedding cake was a sacher torte - made with chocolate and almonds by mother in law Toast.