Thursday 4 October 2012

Fruity Marzipan Traybake




The weather was so cold and miserable last Tuesday that once I had finished work there was no way I was going to go shopping.  Consequently I spent the evening wracking my brain as to what I should bake for the Woolly Wednesday Knitting Group. Whatever the question, I am a great believer in "sleeping on it", and this simple recipe, made from storecupboard ingredients, was the result.

Ingredients
6oz Self Raising Flour
6oz Caster sugar
6oz Butter or margarine
6oz Mixed Dried Fruit
4oz Marzipan diced
3 eggs beaten
Demerara sugar

Prehead the oven to Gas mark 5, or 180c.  Line a small roasting tray (approximately 14" x 8").  An easy way to do this is to turn the tin upside down and mould a piece of aluminium foil over the outside of the tray. The shaped foil should fit nicely inside the tray and all you need to do is grease it.

Dice the marzipan into dolly mixture sized pieces. I prefer to use white marzipan.

Next make the sponge.  Cream together the butter and eggs untill pale and fluffy.  Beat in the eggs little by little.  Don't worry unduly if the mixture curdles as the fruit and marzipan give this cake quite a heavy texture anyway.  Just "bring it back" by beating in a tablespoon of the flour.  Once all the beaten egg has been added, fold in the flour using a metal spoon and a figure of eight motion.  Finally fold in the fruit and diced marzipan.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared roasting tray and smooth it out, making a depression in the centre. Cakes usually rise more in the centre, so making this depression means the cake should come out of the oven fairly even.  Sprinkle the top with Demerara sugar.

Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes.