Individual Marzipan Cakes | All About the Almond

These delicious individual marzipan cakes are thanks to my friend Lisa, who made them recently using a Nigella Lawson recipe for a full size marzipan cake. Lisa decided to pour the batter into a muffin mould to make individual cakes instead of one large cake, which appealed to me hugely. I took note of her feedback that the Nigella recipe produces a really wet and sloppy batter and we reduced the number of eggs by a third. The adjusted batter was perfect.

The resulting mini cakes were utterly delicious, with a beautiful even texture.

They are very easy to make, since all the ingredients are simply combined using a food processor. They store well in an airtight box for a few days so they are a great choice when you need a quick make-ahead recipe for sweet treats.

And the marzipan makes them particularly seasonal for both Easter and Christmas, though of course, you can enjoy them all year round!

IMG_20140420_121428 Individual Marzipan Cakes
IMG_20140420_135215 IMG_20140421_181042

5 from 8 votes

Individual Marzipan Cakes

Adapted from a Nigella Lawson recipe

Makes 4-6 depending on your moulds

Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes

Ingredients

  • 125 g unsalted butter
  • 125 g marzipan (almond paste)
  • 75 g caster sugar
  • 2-3 drops almond extract
  • 2-3 drops vanilla extract
  • 2 large eggs
  • 75 g self-raising flour

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 160C (fan).

  • Liberally butter and flour the muffin mould and set to one side.

  • Cube the butter and marzipan, and either leave out of the fridge for an hour or use the microwave to soften a little.

  • Place the butter, marzipan and caster sugar into a food processor (with the blade attachment) and process until smooth.

  • Add the almond and vanilla extracts and blitz again, briefly.

  • Add the eggs and process until properly combined.

  • Add the flour and process again until you have a smooth cake batter.

  • Pour batter into the muffin mould. We have a bendy rubber spatula that is perfect for making sure that no batter is wasted.

  • Bake for half an hour, but start checking after 25 minutes. When the cake looks golden and cooked, check using a fine skewer. If it comes out cleanish, remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin before turning out and cooling further on a wire rack.

The cakes are tasty served straight away, but develop an added moistness after a day and store well for up to a week.

Nigella suggests serving her full size marzipan cake with raspberries, pureed or stewed apples or creme fraiche and toasted flaked almonds but we thought these little versions were wonderful plain too.

Also, please join me in wishing my lovely Pete and the gorgeous Lisa a very happy birthday, today!

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47 Comments to "Individual Marzipan Cakes | All About the Almond"

  1. Cat Black

    I love that recipe of Nigella’s and make it often. It is one of those that works for loads of occasions, tea, pudding, breakfast! Great idea to make it as individuals. I will try that now too. xx

    Reply
  2. cookwitch

    I could just have eaten the batter all on its own. Gorgeous stuff.

    Reply
  3. Corina

    The little cakes look so well risen. I really like marzipan but usually only but it to decorate the Christmas cake!

    Reply
    kaveyeats

    They rose beautifully and the texture was so even and perfect throughout.

    Reply
  4. Diana

    Thanks Kavey for the halved and adapted recipe. I used your formula to make mini muffins – it yields 32, 1 TBS batter per muffin. I lined the tin with paper cases and sprinkled chopped toasted almonds on the batter before baking. They turned out very lovely!

    Reply
  5. abi

    Amazing cakes! Lovely and moist, perfect for using gluten free flour with so always a winner with me!

    Reply
  6. jen

    I made these yesterday and we loved them, I served them with fresh raspberries and honey greek yoghurt.

    Reply
  7. jen

    I used some as the base for a trifle, with fresh peaches, raspberry jelly, ground almonds stirred into the custard, and whipped cream with a few drops of rosewater, topped with fresh raspberries.
    It was gorgeous.

    Reply
  8. kaveyeats

    Thanks Deena, yes I adore marzipan, and the texture of that finished cake was just so good.

    Reply
  9. earthmaiden

    Finally got round to making these last night, mini-sized ones for a coffee morning today. I would make them in little cases if I made them again, or with circles of baking parchment in the tin. I wasn’t sure about them when they came out of the oven, they seemed a bit sweet and gooey but now that they are over 12 hours old they are totally delicious. I sprinkled them with icing sugar and they were well received. Luckily there are a few left over. Can’t wait to make them again, thanks for getting the recipe right and for sharing!

    Reply
    kaveyeats

    I’m so glad you enjoyed them and that those you shared them with did too! Thank you so much for coming back to let me know!

    Reply
    Jean Lamb

    Thank you for this recipe …delicious! Decided to use a x12 madeleine tin and a x12 shallow cake tin and baked for 15mins at the recommended temperature. Turned out beautifully. Light dusting of icing sugar for decoration.

    Reply
    kaveyeats

    So glad you enjoyed. It’s an adaptation from a Nigella recipe, so bound to be delicious! ♥️

    Reply
  10. kaveyeats

    My pleasure, just ate the last one of the latest batch an hour ago! 😁

    Reply
  11. Maximus

    Marzipan is my favourite food so this recipe was a blessing! I tried to make mini cakes and they turned out really nicely. Thank you for making this!

    Reply
  12. Donna

    This was one of the best muffins I have ever tasted. Cant wait to make again. Thank you.

    Reply
  13. David Turpin

    Making this tomorrow for my wife’s birthday. A tower of cupcakes. I am wonders how much batter to put in each cupcake paper thingy? Obviously I don’t want it overflowing.

    Reply
    kaveyeats

    Apologies that I missed your comment a couple of days ago, I hope the cake making went ok? They do rise, last time I made them they went over the top of the muffin tray (the same one we always use!) a bit, so had to cut them loose but still tasted fabulous.

    Reply
  14. Donna

    These were one of the best muffins/individual cakes I have ever made and I bake all the time. Thank you.

    Reply
    kaveyeats

    Thanks so much, very glad you enjoyed them. All credit to Nigella, I just adjusted her original recipe!😁

    Reply
  15. Akafroglet

    Found your recipe looking for ways to use up some leftover marzipan from Christmas baking. What a brilliant idea, these individual cakes! For me the yield was 6 large muffins – around an inch of batter per mould – the lower half bakes to about 1inch tall and then a lovely dome rises another 1.5 inches. Had to eat one almost straight from the oven. I think they will be gorgeous with poached rhubarb (conveniently, Nigella just posted a recipe on Instagram!)

    Reply
    kaveyeats

    So happy you enjoyed, I love them in muffin tins. Great idea to face with rhubarb. Nigella is one of the Queens of cooking for good reason!

    Reply
  16. kaveyeats

    Sorry I missed notification of your question but I’m afraid I’ve never tried freezing these so I can’t answer. They store very well for a few days in sealed boxes.

    Reply
  17. ann

    In the US here…
    I am new to marzipan- do you know what I should be looking for? I see Almond paste…

    Reply
    kaveyeats

    Yes to the best of my knowledge, marzipan is known as almond paste in the USA. However, I cannot guarantee that the composition of almond paste you can get will exactly or closely match the regular supermarket marzipan we get here in the UK, so please be aware that you may find variations in sweetness and texture. It’s a fairly forgiving recipe so will hopefully be OK, but I have not personally made it using American almond paste. x

    Reply
  18. Hilary

    Great recipe, loved it. I doubled the quantity and put my own twist to half the batch. When they were cold I cut a circle out of the top (like when you do butterfly cakes) and filled wit teaspooonof apricot jam then put the hat back on. Raspberry or cherry jam would work well too. They were both delicious. Certainly make again

    Reply

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