Marzipan Cake With Chocolate Ganache And Sliced Almonds Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°F. and butter a 9 1/2-inch springform pan.
• Make crust:
• In a shallow baking pan toast almonds in middle of oven until golden, about 10 minutes. Remove almonds from oven but leave oven on. Cool almonds completely. In a food processor pulse nuts until finely chopped and transfer to a bowl. Break graham crackers into food processor and finely grind. Stir 1 cup cracker crumbs and sugar into almonds. Melt butter and add to crumb mixture, stirring with a fork until combined well. Press crumb mixture evenly onto bottom and 1 inch up side of springform pan.
• Make filling:
• In a food processor grind together almond paste and sugar until combined well. Add cream cheese and vanilla and blend well. Add eggs 1 at a time, pulsing until just combined after each addition.
• Pour filling into crust and bake in middle of oven 50 minutes. Turn off oven and let cheesecake stand in oven 10 minutes. (Cake will not be set in center but will set as it cools. Don't worry if cheesecake cracks; chocolate topping will cover it.) Cool cheesecake in pan on a rack 1 hour.
• Run a thin knife around edge of pan to loosen cheesecake but do not remove side of pan. Chill cake, uncovered, at least 4 hours and up to 1 day.
• Make topping:
• Finely chop chocolate. In a small saucepan bring cream just to a simmer and remove pan from heat. Add chocolate and stir until smooth.
• Carefully pour topping onto cake and spread it up to but not over edge. Chill cake, covered, until chocolate is set, at least 2 hours, and up to 1 day.
• Just before serving, remove side of pan.

Steps:

• Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Butter a 1kg loaf tin (ours was 14 x 24 x 7cm) and line with a long strip of baking parchment. Lightly dust a surface with icing sugar and roll the marzipan out to a 1cm-thick rectangle, then cut it so that it's just smaller than the base of the loaf tin.
• Beat the butter and both sugars together in a large bowl using an electric whisk until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, flour, baking powder, almond extract, milk and cocoa powder until smooth. Fold in the chocolate chips, scraping down the sides of the bowl to ensure everything is combined.
• Pour half the batter into the tin. Top with the marzipan rectangle, then pour the remaining batter on top and smooth the surface. Bake for 1 hr-1 hr 15 mins until golden, risen and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Leave to cool completely in the tin.
• To make the ganache, bring the cream to a simmer in a small pan. Meanwhile, put the dark chocolate, golden syrup and almond extract in a heatproof bowl. Once the cream is simmering, pour it over the chocolate mixture and set aside for 2 mins to melt. Whisk until smooth, then leave for 5 mins to cool and thicken slightly. Pour the ganache all over the cake, and cut into slices to serve.