Cherry Bakewell cake

ingredients | serves 10 | prepare 1hr 45 mins

200g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing • 150g Waitrose Cooks’ Homebaking golden marzipan, cut into 1cm cubes • 150g cherries, halved • 150g self-raising flour • 200g golden caster sugar • 3 large eggs • 1 tsp vanilla extract • 70g ground almonds • 1 lemon, zest and 2 tbsp juice • 3-5 tbsp icing sugar • 2 tbsp toasted flaked almonds

step 1

Preheat the oven to 170˚C. Grease and line a deep, 20cm cake tin with parchment. Toss the marzipan and all but 4 of the cherry halves in 2 tbsp flour; set aside. Beat butter and sugar together. Add the eggs, beating between additions and stirring in a spoonful of flour if the mixture curdles. Add vanilla, then fold in the remaining flour and ground almonds, followed by the lemon zest and 1½ tbsp juice.

step 2

Spoon about 2/3 of the batter into the tin and top with half the floured cherries and marzipan. Cover with the remaining batter, and add the remaining cherries and marzipan in an even layer, pressing them down slightly (they will sink into the cake as it cooks). Bake for about 1 hour 15 minutes, loosely covering the top of the cake with foil if it browns too quickly. Cool in the tin before carefully turning out onto a wire rack.

step 3

Roughly chop the 4 reserved cherry halves and squeeze out their juice into a bowl. Stir in the remaining ½ tbsp lemon juice and the icing sugar until you have a smooth, spoonable, pink icing. Drizzle this icing over the cake and scatter with the flaked almonds.