I wouldn´t think of myself as the person who makes the fanciest cakes. I´ve made quite a few in my life which turned out not too bad but the things I am really good at are the good old basics. Like grandmas apple cake. Zwetschgendatschi or muffins in endless variations. I´m not too bad at desserts either. Crème brûlée? Mousse ou chocolat? Panna cotta? No problem. But when it comes to cakes and frosting and decoration, I get a little nervous. Nevertheless, sometimes I feel the urge to get in the kitchen and make one of those fancy-shmancy cakes that gets everybody’s attention. Frosting included!

This weekend was one of those times. I really wanted to bake a cake and after checking my cookbooks I stumbled upon a recipe that I wrote down more than 10 years ago. It was actually on a back of a pack of sugar. But since I was a little younger and very confused by some steps and ingredients I decided too just skip them altogether. The result was this vanilla-chocolate-marzipan cake.

I would say that this cake is a little difficult to prepare but if 10-year old me can do it, than so can you. Just make sure to not leave it in the kitchen on a warm summer night with the back door wide open or you might come back to a cat eating half of the cake. (True story…stupid cat. I hope it got a stomach ache!)

Note to the recipe:
This cake is not made out of three different cakes; instead it’s baked at once. For that, you have to carefully add the batter on top of each other, while placing some chocolate in the middle. The batter is rather runny, which makes it more difficult to add the layers. Just be patient and careful and you should be fine.

It´s up to you whether you want to make this cake in a 26-28 cm cake pan or a 18-20 cm one. If you use the smaller one, the cake might need some more time in the oven.

For the batter:
100 g soft butter
200 g raw marzipan
8 egg yolks
2 tbsp. vanilla extract (or one vanilla bean and 1 tbsp. of sugar)
1 pinch of salt
8 egg whites
130 g sugar
130 g all-purpose flour

For the filling:
300 g dark coverture or chocolate

For the frosting:
100 g dark coverture
1 tbsp. honey
Berries or nuts for decoration

1) Melt butter and let cool. Mix raw marzipan with egg yolks. Add vanilla extract (or core of the vanilla bean and sugar) and using a handmixer mix until you have a thick cream.
2) Beat egg whites with salt until stiff. Add sugar and keep beating. Stir in one third of the beaten egg whites with the egg yolks. Carefully fold in the rest of the beaten egg whites, flour and melted butter.
3) Pour one third of the batter into a buttered cake pan. Add chopped coverture and the next third of the batter. Carefully spread the batter around, add the rest of the coverture and finally the last third of the batter. Bake the cake for an hour in the preheated oven at 160°C. Let cool completely before adding the frosting.
4) For the frosting, melt coverture and add honey. Spread the frosting evenly on the cake. Decorate with berries, chocolate or nuts.