Skye McAlpine’s show-stopping cake – perfect for birthdays and special occasions – is sure to become a go-to recipe. From her book A Table Full of Love
IMAGE: SKYE MCALPINE
There is no better present to give someone on their birthday than a homemade birthday cake. The recipe below is a go-to of mine, a vision of delicate, picture-perfect pink, made with raspberries rather than food colouring so you can taste the colour. The marzipan sponge and icing are both wonderfully light and fluffy and even people who think they don’t like marzipan love this cake.
Carefully package in a cake box and store somewhere cool for two or three days.
Raspberry and Marzipan Cake
Ingredients
FOR THE CAKE
- 300 g salted butter softened, plus more for the tins
- 340 g caster sugar
- 270 g marzipan grated
- 8 eggs
- 180 g self-raising flour
- fine sea salt
FOR THE FILLING AND ICING
- 370 g fresh raspberries
- 450 g icing sugar plus 2 heaped tbsp
- 3 tbsp boiling water
- 120 g marzipan grated
- 230 g salted butter softened
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 170 ̊C/150 ̊C fan/Gas 31⁄2. Butter and line 2 x 23cm round cake tins.
- Combine the caster sugar, marzipan and a generous pinch of salt in a food processor and blitz to something resembling sand. Add the butter and blitz until smooth.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, blitzing after each to make a smooth batter. Add the flour and blitz again until thoroughly blended.
- Divide the batter equally between the prepared tins and bake in the oven for 50–60 minutes until lightly golden on top and a knife comes out clean when inserted to the middle. Let cool in the tin for 20 minutes or so, then turn out on to a wire rack and let cool completely.
- To make the icing, combine 120g raspberries in a food processor with the 2 heaped tbsp icing sugar and blitz to a smooth purée. Strain the purée through a sieve. Discard the seeds and set the deep pink liquid to one side.
- In a small bowl, add the measured boiling water to the marzipan and mix it with a fork to melt it slightly (this stops it going lumpy when you add it to the buttercream).
- In a second, large bowl, use a hand-held electric whisk to mix the 450g icing sugar and the butter until pale and fluffy, then add the marzipan and beat until smooth. Add a dash of raspberry purée and beat, then add more, depending what intensity of colour and flavour you like.
- Spoon a large dollop of the pink icing over the first cake and spread it out evenly, then top with a layer of fresh raspberries (reserving just a few for the top). Sandwich on top the second cake and smother with the pink icing. Decorate with the last of the raspberries. While the cake tastes best on the day of baking, it will keep happily in an airtight container in a cool place for 2–3 days.
A Table Full of Love by Skye McAlpine is published by Bloomsbury, £26. Photography by Skye McAlpine
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