Best Marzipan Cake Ever!

The other half recently baked the most amazing cake for me that I have ever tried. It is spongy, moist and so full of flavour. It must be the ultimate marzipan cake. Some people don't like marzipan, but the marzipan flavour is not overpowering in any way. It's more like an almond favour with benefits. 
The marzipan in the cake, however, helps giving the cake its characteristics and its moistness.

Ingredients:
250 grams butter - preferably unsalted (softened)
250 grams marzipan (softened)
150 grams caster sugar
¼ teaspoon almond essence
1 tsp vanilla powder / or seeds from a vanilla pod
6 large eggs
150 grams all-purpose wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda

You will need a 25cm / 10 inch springform tube pan or patterned ring mould, buttered and floured.
Preheat oven to 170ºC/gas mark 3. Chop the butter and marzipan to make them easier to break down, and put them in a bowl and use an electrical mixer, with the sugar. Mix until combined and pretty well smooth. Add almond essence and vanilla powder/seeds, process again, then break the eggs one at a time, mixing again each time. Add the flour and baking soda, mix yet again, and then pour the mixture into the prepared tin, scraping the sides and bottom with a rubber spatula.

Bake for 50 minutes, but check from 40 minutes onwards if it is baked. Then, when the cake looks golden and cooked and a cake-tester or fine skewer comes out cleanish, remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin before turning out. 

The fact that you could easily get 12 slices out of this is another reason why it comes in useful when you've got people coming for dinner or tea. That it keeps for a good week is another point in its favour (if you can keep off it!); you don't have to be fiddling around with all the courses just before lift-off. 

It's really a variation over the pound cake. But so much more interesting than the original. It may cost a few pounds to bake it, but its yumminess guarantees that you will gain a few pounds once you start eating it. Not a healthy creation, but it's heaven on a plate. Go on: get baking!

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Danish pork meatballs

Danish pork meatballs (frikadeller) is one of the most popular traditional dishes in Danish households. An absolute favorite with both children and adults.


Ingredients: (4 persons)

500g minced pork 
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 medium-sized onion, chopped thinly1 clove of garlic, crushed
2 tsp coarse salt (preferably sea salt)
1 tbsp freshly ground pepper
1 tbsp bread crumb (non-flavoured)
1 tbsp porridge oats
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp smoked paprika (can be omitted as it can be hard to find it - or use noble sweet regular paprika instead)
1 egg
25ml skimmed- or low-fat milk
15g Butter
1 tbsp olive oil

If you purchase pork already ground at the supermarket, be sure that it is not seasoned pork sausage. 

Combine the ground pork with the flour in a bowl and mix well. Add the onion, crushed garlic, allspice, bread crumb, oats, salt and pepper. Mix in the eggs and then the milk with a spoon. Add a bit more milk if the dough is too firm. It should still feel fairly easy to work through with the spoon, but should also be firm rather than runny. 
Spoon the mixture into a deep plate and chill in the refrigerator for min. 1 hour for seasoning and easier shaping.

Add enough equal parts butter and oil to a skillet to measure 1/4 inch in depth. Heat over medium heat. Hold the dish with the meatball mixture in the left hand and spoon the pork mixture carefully into the pan with a soup spoon, shaping it into balls with the spoon. Dip in the butter/oil mixture every time you have placed another meatball on the pan. This prevents the dough from sticking to the spoon.

Cook the meatballs until brown on both sides, turning once.

Remove the meatballs to a plate. 

Serve warm with pickled Red Cabbage and Caramelised Potatoes or serve as a light lunch with 

Potato Salad.

Tip: Danish Meatballs can be frozen and reheated in the oven or microwave. They also last well for up to three days when covered in the fridge and are absolutely gorgeous eaten cold as a snack, sliced on a piece of rye bread or with cold red cabbage.


Tip: Use a mixture of butter and olive oil for frying as it prevents the "squirting" from the pan that you will usually experience if you use either pure butter or oil. Preferably, you should use Lurpak Butter - slightly salted - when frying to get the authentic taste.

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