Morello Cherry and Marzipan Bundt Cake

This is my recipe for a festive morello cherry bundt cake with a marzipan filling topped with a lemon glaze. I am practising my festive season baking at the moment and as a result making far too much cake. The marzipan, almond and kirsch flavour always remind me of Christmas baking. The basic cake mix for this recipe is based on my trusty Ciambella recipe.

preparation time: 10-15 minutes

cooking time: 40-50 minutes

ingredients:

1 cup soured milk (squeeze of lemon until milk curdles - don't worry it'll look horrible but will be OK - it helps the rise!)

3 eggs
2 cups of caster sugar
3 cups of plain flour
grated zest of 1 lemons
2 tbs kirsch (optional)
2 tsp almond essence
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 heaped teaspoons of baking powder
250g marzipan
350g pitted morello cherries (I used a drained jar of cherries in syrup, but tinned or fresh would work well too)
Pinch salt

lemon glaze:
1 cup icing sugar
juice of 1 lemon

Grease a bundt tin, and dust it lightly with flour. Preheat the oven to 180°C, 350°F.

Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil, sugar, almond essence, and kirsch (if using) lemon zest and salt. Beat using an electric whisk for about 3-4 mins.

Stir in the cherries with a spoon until well mixed.

Roll the marzipan into long sausage shapes - this will be your central layer.

Pour half the mixture into the tin then add your marzipan 'sausages' - top with the remaining cake mix.

Bake for about 40-50 minutes until well risen and a skewer comes out clean.
Turn off the oven, remove cake from tin after a few minutes and leave to cool on a rack.

Mix the glaze ingredients together and pour over cake.

Enjoy with a nice cup of tea or coffee....let me know how you get on :)

You can check out my other recipes on http://chipbuttiesandnoodlesoup.blogspot.co.uk/