Swedish mazarin cake

Swedish mazarin cake – an almond and lemon treat. These soft, moist and easy-to-make almond squares have a fresh lemon flavour and are topped with a delicious lemon glaze. It’s one of those cakes that doesn’t need a glass of milk to go with it – it’s light rather than heavy. Fresh, almost refreshing, it fits perfectly among spring and Easter bakes. One of the most delicious cakes I’ve ever had. The almond mixture keeps the cake wonderfully moist and gives it a delicate almond flavour – it practically melts in your mouth. Highly recommended!

This cake comes from Margareta’s recipe – thank you very much for sharing it.

Ingredients for mazarin cake:

• 200 g butter, melted
• 200 ml milk
• 3 eggs
• slightly less than 1 cup caster sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla sugar
• 125 g marzipan
• zest and juice of 1 lemon
• 300 g plain flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder

All ingredients should be at room temperature.

Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the milk, stir and set aside. In the bowl of a mixer, beat the eggs with both sugars until pale, fluffy and nearly tripled in volume. Add the lemon juice and zest. Add the marzipan, finely grated, and mix until combined. Sift the flour and baking powder directly into the mixture, then pour in the butter and milk mixture. Fold gently with a spatula in one direction just until combined.

Line the base of a 24 × 24 cm square tin with baking paper. Pour the batter into the tin and level the surface.

Bake at 160°C for about 30–40 minutes, increasing the temperature to 170°C towards the end if needed, until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove from the oven, allow to cool slightly in the tin, then glaze.

Ingredients for lemon icing:

• 1 cup icing sugar
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice

Mix the ingredients in a bowl using the back of a spoon until smooth. If the icing is too thin, add more icing sugar; if too thick, add more lemon juice.

Enjoy!