You probably recall that the people at Dr Oetker sent me a few things to do some Christmas Baking with. One of them was a packet of their 36% Almond Marzipan, premium recipe. We love marzipan in this house, so trying it was not a hardship in any way!
Foil wrapped, their 36% Almond Marzipan uses a premium recipe to give it a superb distinctive almond flavour. The almonds are carefully ground and mixed to create a beautifully smooth, soft textured marzipan to help you mould easily and achieve a smooth surface on your cakes. It has the natural pale almond nut colour of almonds and contains no added colouring. Natural is always a big bonus in my books. I'm a natural gal all the way.
I decided to bake our all time favourite Mincemeat & Marzipan Tea Loaf. This is a recipe that I have adapted from one of those little BBC Good Food Books, "101 Cakes and Bakes." It is a cake I make fairly often because it contains two of my absolute favourite ingredients . . . Mincemeat and Marzipan!
The end result is a deliciously moist tea loaf, filled with spice and fruit and fudgy little pockets of scrummy marzipan! Oh so good . . . and we love the toasted flaked almonds on the top too.
Just perfect for tucking into with a nice hot cuppa in the afternoon! And whilst I am talking about hot cuppa's . . . here's a wonderful idea for a last minute Christmas Gift for that Britophile of yours!
The people from Eddingtons sent me a lovely Aerolatte Union Jack Milk Frother to try out. This small, lightweight frother prepares foamed milk for cappucinos, lattes, hot chocolate and milkshakes in less than half a minute. Plus it's really cute. I love the look of it's Union Jack exterior! It's easy to clean with a removeable frother attachment which you can wash by hand, and also comes with it's own sturdy slim line carry case. I know a few people on my Christmas List who would appreciate one of these. Available at most kitchen stockists in the UK and also John Lewis (£20). It worked a charm . . . most impressive.
It helped to make the hot chocolate that I enjoyed with my afternoon slice of cake a real frothy pleasure indeed.
Bake the cake. You won't be sorry you did. Scrumdiddlyumptious! Many thanks to Dr Oetker and to Eddingtons!
*Mincemeat and Marzipan Tea Loaf*
Makes one 2 pound loaf, serving 12
Printable Recipe
A deliciously moist, spiced and fruity teabread, filled with little pockets of Marzipan and topped with flaked almonds. Delicious for munching with a hot cuppa in the afternoon.
200g self raising flour (2 cups0
4 ounces cold butter, cut into pieces (1/2 cup)
85g of light muscovado sugar (Scant half cup packed)
85g marzipan, cut into 1/2 inch cubes (a scant 1/4 pound, about 3/4 cup, loose)
300g of prepared mincemeat (1 1/4 cups)
2 large free range eggs
2 TBS flaked almonds
sifted icing sugar for dusting once baked and cooled
Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Butter a 2 pound loaf tin and line it with baking paper. Set aside.
Sift the flour into a bowl. Drop in the butter pieces and rub them into the flour using your fingertips, until you have a mixture resembling fine crumbs. Stir in the sugar and the marzipan cubes, trying to keep the cubes separated.
Beat together the eggs and the mincemeat. Stir this into the flour mixture until evenly combined. Spoon into the prepared loaf tin, smoothing over the top. Sprinkle the almonds over all.
Bake for about 1 hour until the loaf is risen and golden brown on top and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with icing sugar once cooled if desired.
Cut into slices to serve at room temperature, buttered or not.
Over in the Cottage today, some scrummy Butterscotch Mallow Squares!
