This marzipan fruitcake is a butter cake made with lots of moist fruits and nuts along with sweet almond paste or marzipan. A surprising simple and easy cake recipe to make for the holiday season. Perfect for the Christmas sweets tray.
If you have ever covered your fruit cake with marzipan then you know how delicious it tastes. Now, think about adding marzipan inside your fruitcake. Absolute heaven.
This recipe is very simple and easy. You can soak the fruit in advance for months or just 30 minutes before baking the cake. I love the flavor of almonds in my marzipan but you can make marzipan with other nuts such as cashews, pecans, or a combination of almonds and cashews.
Ingredients and substitutions
- Marzipan - I am using boiled or cooked marzipan but you can also use uncooked marzipan.
- Flour - I use only plain, all-purpose flour (maida). But, you substitute ½ cup flour with either semolina/rawa.
- Butter - I like to use unsalted butter but you can use salted butter and omit salt in the recipe
- Sugar - today, I am using white sugar but light brown sugar does add a wonderful caramel flavor from the molasses
- Fruits -dried rainsins, currents, glace cherries and fruits are most commonly used but I love the additon of dried figs, apricots, dates, and cranberries
- Nuts - a combination of almonds and cashews are very common but walnuts, hazelnuts and macadamia are very delicious too.
You may also like
Equipment /Tools
- 8-inch round baking pan
- Kitchen scale
- Mixing bowl
Ingredients
- 1½ cup (190 g) All-purpose flour plain flour
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- ¾ cup (170 g) Butter unsalted, room temperature
- ½ cup (100 g) Sugar
- ¾ cup (170 g) Marzipan almond paste broken into pieces
- 2 Eggs large
- ⅔ cup (156 ml) Rum or orange juice
- 2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Fruit and Nuts
- 1 cup (145 g) Raisins
- ¾ cup (85 g) Black currants
- ½ cup (85 g) Glace Cherries chopped
- ½ cup (58 g) Walnuts chopped
- ½ cup (65 g) Cashew nuts chopped
- ½ cup Almonds chopped
Optional
- ½ cup (120 ml) Rum for a boozy cake
Instructions
- Soak the raisins, currants, cherries in the rum for 30 minutes or well-sealed up to 3 months in the fridge. Drain and set aside. Pro tip - make sure to drain the fruit well so you can add it to the flour. This will prevent the fruits from sinking to the bottom of the fruitcake.
- Preheat the oven at 160°C / 325°F / Gas Mark 3
- Grease and line the bottom and sides of a 3 inch deep 8-inch round baking pan with parchment paper and set aside.
- Dry ingredients - combine the flour, salt, and baking powder - set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment or you can use a bowl and whisk. Cream butter, sugar, and marzipan until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs one at a time, followed by the vanilla extract,
- Add the flour and rum to the cake batter saving a few tablespoons of flour for the fruit. Then add the flour-coated fruit and chopped nuts to the cake batter as well. Pro tip - once coated in flour add it immediately to the batter and do not overmix.
- Pour the cake batter into the prepared baking pan and bake for about 40 to 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean
- Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes then invert on a cooling rack to cool completely Pro tip- For a boozy Christmas cake pour the optional rum over the cake as soon as it comes out of the oven.
About Videos - most recipes has two videos - a quick version in the post & longer detailed version on this recipe card. Please do subscribe to my channel if you like my videos
Nutrition Information
The nutrition information and metric conversion are calculated automatically. I cannot guarantee its accuracy. If this data is important to you please verify with your trusted nutrition calculator. Thank you
Connect with me....Are you East Indian? Which part of the world are you from? Leave a comment, I'd love to know.