Christmas Bauble Cake
- Made from spelt flour for a lighter consistency. Many people find spelt flour easier to digest than regular flour.
- Uses low-sugar, home-made marzipan rather than icing.
Organic Coconut Sugar (1kg) - Sussex Wholefoods
90g of coconut sugar. This is a great alternative to refined cane sugar, with a lower GI and a lovely natural pudding-like flavour.
115g of spelt flour. Spelt is a traditional wheat flour and is lighter and lower in gluten than modern refined flours.
100% Pure Organic Coconut Butter 350ml (Tiana)
70g of coconut butter. This is an alternative to normal butter, and has a healthier nutritional profile. This coconut butter from Tiana is odourless and does not taste of coconut - making it ideal as a straight replacement for butter.
Mixed Vine Fruit, Organic 1kg (Sussex Wholefoods)
250g of mixed vine fruit.
Organic Apricots (1kg) - Sussex WholeFoods
25g of dried apricots. These unsulphured apricots have a more natural flavour than the bright orange ones! Chop these apricots for the recipe.
Candied Lemon Peel 100g, Organic (La Bio Idea)
25g of lemon peel - this candied peel is sweetened with a minimal amount of corn glucose syrup. That's it, no additives!
Candied Orange Peel 100g, Organic (La Bio Idea)
25g of orange peel - this candied peel is sweetened with a minimal amount of corn glucose syrup. That's it, no additives!
Ground Nutmeg 50g (Hampshire Foods)
¼ teaspoon of nutmeg powder.
Mixed Spice 50g (Hampshire Foods)
1 teaspoon of mixed spice. This is a mixture of spices for baking, and includes cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg.
Organic Ground Almonds (1kg) - Sussex WholeFoods
450g of Ground Almonds - for the marzipan as well as the cake.
Lemon Juice - for the marzipan.
Almond Extract 60ml (Nielsen Massey)
2 teaspoons of almond extract.
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (fan oven), 200°C (non-fan) or gas mark 5.
- Grease two small hemispherical 5-inch cake tins (failing this, you can use deep circular tins and sculpt the halves later).
- Chop the apricots and place in a bowl, together with the lemon peel, orange peel and fruit mix. Add some of the flour and toss the fruit in the bowl to ensure that it is coated with the flour. Then add the 50g of ground almonds.
- In a separate bowl, mix the coconut butter, sugar, flour, butter and eggs. Mix thoroughly.
- Combine the two bowls and mix thoroughly. You may like to use a food mixer to achieve the best mix!
- Spoon the mixture into the two hemispherical tins. Make the top slightly concave, as it will rise during baking and we need the surface to be as flat as possible so that the two halves will fit together!
- Bake in the oven for 1 to 1¼ hours. After 1 hour, check the cake. Test the cake with a skewer; if it comes out clean, the cake is cooked. Check both halves of the cake.
- Meanwhile, make the marzipan. Mix the almonds, Sukrin Melis, lemon juice, coconut nectar, almond extract.
- Transfer the marzipan mixture onto a flat surface covered with cling film. Press as flat as you can then cover the top with cling film and roll out the marzipan with a rolling pin.
- When the cake is cooked, pull both halves out of the oven and allow to cool.
- If necessary, sculpt the two halves into dome shapes.
- Put the two domes together, using marzipan as a form of glue!
- Cover the bauble with the remaining marzipan – keep a little aside to form the top of the bauble.
- Decorate as you wish. We used special food grade sprays in bronze, silver and gold and added some sparkle here and there with edible glitter!
