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1
Preheat oven to 350F.
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2
Chop the butter and marzipan to make them easier to break down, and put them in the bowl of the food processor, fitted with the metal blade, with the sugar.
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3
Process until combined and pretty well smooth.
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4
Add almond and vanilla extracts, process again, then break the eggs one at a time through the funnel, processing again each time.
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5
Mix the flour and tip down the funnel, processing yet again, and then pour the mixture into the prepared pan, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
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6
Bake for 50 minutes, but check from Then, when the cake looks golden and cooked and a cake tester or fine skewer (or a piece of spaghetti) comes out cleanish, remove from the oven and leave to cool in the pan before turning out.
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7
(This is when you will be feeling grateful if its the springform youre using.)
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8
The fact that you could easily get 12 slices out of this cake is another reason why it comes in useful when youve got people coming for dinner.
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9
That it keeps for a good week is another point in its favor; you dont have to be fiddling around with all the courses just before liftoff.
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10
And if you dont want to eat raspberries with it, like the rosemary cake its very good with apples.
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11
With this cake, I make a glorious pink apple puree.
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12
Either go for apples stewed in blood-orange juice (wonderful around February when the oranges are in), which gives a tenderly coral tint, adding a cinnamon stick or 1/2-1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon, or use red-skinned eating apples and dont peel before cooking them.
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13
In fact, theres no need to core them either, just chop the apples roughly and put them in a pan with some butter, lemon juice, cinnamon or cloves and, if theres some around, a slug of Calvados.
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14
Strain the apples when theyre cooked to an utterly yielding pulp, or push them through a food mill.
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15
If you want to smarten up the cake-plus-puree deal, then provide a bowl of creme fraiche (with or without Calvados and a little confectioners sugar stirred in) with some toasted slivered almonds on top.
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16
I am not someone who enjoys peeling and pithing oranges at great length, but sliced blood or ordinary oranges, with a syrup made by reducing equal volumes of juice and sugar to an almost-caramel, would partner an orange-zested version of this almond ring (the zest in place of vanilla) exquisitely.
