Sunday, May 5, 2013

Vegan apple marzipan cake

This cake has come to be known in our household as the SO's birthday cake, because he loves but it's labor intensive enough that I only make it for special occasions (ie, his birthday). The most fabulous bit about this cake is the thin layer of marzipan rolled out over the top and glazed with apricot jam and rum right after it comes out of the oven. Yum!

The recipe came to me from the SO's mother, and before that from a German vegan listserv. We translated the recipe (which is not as straightforward as you might think since there are several staples of German baking--such as pre-measured baking powder packets and sugar mixed with vanilla extract--that are not available over here) and I've tweaked it a bit over the years. I haven't seen anything similar on any of the vegan blogs I frequent, so I'll share the recipe here.

Apple marzipan cake

For the crust:
1 1/3 c flour
1/3 c margarine
1/3 c sugar
3 tbsp water

For the filling:
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c margarine
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp rum
10 drops lemon extract
pinch salt
1/4 c soy (or almond) milk
1 3/4 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
4 medium apples, peeled and finely sliced

For the topping:
150g marzipan
2 tbsp apricot jam
1 tbsp rum

1. Mix all ingredients together for the crust, and store in the fridge in plastic wrap to chill before rolling out.
2. Roll out crust to 1/4 inch thick and place at the bottom of a greased springform pan.
3. Cream margarine and sugar, vanilla, run, lemon extract, and salt together for the filling batter. Blend in soy milk and then sift flour and baking powder into the wet ingredients (note that the batter ends up very thick, sometimes I add a bit more soy milk if it's too thick to spread easily).
4. Spread half of this batter over the crust. Arrange the sliced apples on top of the batter, and then spread the remainder of the batter on top.
5. Knead the marzipan and roll out into a thin layer, spread out on top of the cake and pat it down.
6. Bake the cake for 40 min at 350F.
7. Immediately after the cake comes out of the oven, spread the apricot jam and rum mixture on top of the marzipan crust, and allow the cake to cool.