Cherry and almond tray bake recipe
A simple yet crowd pleasing tray bake that's easy to slice up and serve at your Coffee Morning.
Key information
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 30-35 minutes
Serves: 24 slices
Recipe difficulty rating: Medium
Allergens: Remember to provide a list of potential allergens for each item served at your Coffee Morning event so people can clearly see what ingredients they contain. You can use our cake labels, but make sure you write clearly in block capitals and black ink.
Ingredients
For the cake
300g butter
300g caster sugar
375g self raising flour
1 lemon, zest & juice
85g ground almonds
4 free range eggs, lightly beaten
25g marzipan, chilled & grated
2 tsp almond extract
1 tsp baking powder
3 tbsp whole milk
200g glacé cherries, quartered. Reserve 8 for decoration
Flaked toasted almonds
For the icing
Fondant icing sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
How to prepare cherry and almond tray bake
- Heat oven to 180°C/160°C fan/gas mark 4.
- Grease and line a square traybake tin, about 28 x 28cm, with baking parchment.
- Put all the cake ingredients (apart from the cherries) in a large mixing bowl or tabletop mixer and beat together until thoroughly combined.
- Toss the cherries in a little flour, then fold them into the cake mixture using a spatula.
- Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 30-35 mins until the cake is golden brown, springy to the touch, and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool completely in the tin.
- To make the icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl, then add the lemon juice and enough water to make a thick yet fluid icing. Spoon the remaining icing over the cooled cake – it should be liquid enough to level itself out; if not, use a palette knife to smooth it.
- Cut into squares and garnish with glace cherry quarters and toasted flaked almonds.