Easy Almond Cake

Directions

1. 1
   Preheat oven to 350F.
2. 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.
3. 3
   Process until combined and pretty well smooth.
4. 4
   Add almond and vanilla extracts, process again, then break the eggs one at a time through the funnel, processing again each time.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 7
   (This is when you will be feeling grateful if its the springform youre using.)
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 10
    And if you dont want to eat raspberries with it, like the rosemary cake its very good with apples.
11. 11
    With this cake, I make a glorious pink apple puree.
12. 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.
13. 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.
14. 14
    Strain the apples when theyre cooked to an utterly yielding pulp, or push them through a food mill.
15. 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.
16. 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.