Almond Kirsch Cake

Total Time: 3 hrs 30 mins Preparation Time: 30 mins Cook Time: 3 hrs

Ingredients

• Servings: 8
• 1 cup marzipan
• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 6 eggs, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon kirsch
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup cake-and-pastry flour
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup blanched whole almond
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 4 egg whites
• 1 dash cream of tartar
• 1 1/2 cups whipping cream
• 1/2 cup icing sugar, sifted
• 1/4 cup kirsch
• 1 1/2 cups sweet cherries, pitted

Recipe

• 1 for cake, preheat oven to 325 °f.
• 2 grease and line a 10-inch cake pan with parchment paper. grease again and dust with flour, tapping out excess.
• 3 pulse marzipan, butter and sugar in a food processor until smooth.
• 4 add eggs, kirsch and vanilla and purée on high until smooth (scraping into the bottom of the bowl, if needed).
• 5 scrape batter into a bowl and stir in flour in two additions.
• 6 scrape into prepared pan and bake for 65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
• 7 cool completely in the pan.
• 8 for meringue layer, reduce oven temperature to 250 °f and line bottom of a 10-inch spring form pan with parchment.
• 9 pulse 1/3 cup sugar and almonds in food processor until ground.
• 10 toss with cornstarch and set aside.
• 11 whip egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy, then add remaining 1/3 cup sugar and whip until a stiff peak forms.
• 12 quickly but gently fold in ground nuts and spread evenly into prepared pan.
• 13 bake for 1 ½ to 2 hours or until dry.
• 14 run a spatula around edge of pan to loosen meringue, cool completely.
• 15 for kirsch cream, whip cream to medium peaks, and whip in icing sugar and kirsch.
• 16 to assemble, slice marzipan cake in half.
• 17 spread 1 cup of kirsch cream over cake and sprinkle with ½ cup of cherries.
• 18 place meringue disk on top and spread with another cup of cream and ½ cup of cherries.
• 19 top with other half of marzipan cake and spread remaining cream, topped with cherries.
• 20 chill until ready to serve.
• 21 cake can be assembled up to 4 hours in advance.