Apricot And Almond Cake With Almond Paste

Our answer

Nigella's Almond Cake with Rosewater and Cardamom (from SIMPLY NIGELLA) is a gluten free cake that is made with ground almonds (almond meal) and polenta. Ground almonds are simply ground nuts, with nothing else added.

Almond paste is made from ground almonds and sugar (or sometimes glucose syrup). It is often used for tart or pie fillings and is less sweet and has a coarser texture than marzipan. In theory it would be possible to use it in the cake (if made in a food processor) though the cake would be slightly sweeter. You would need to pulse the paste briefly in the food processor first to break it into small pieces, before adding the other ingredients. Then make sure there are no lumps in the processed cake batter. However as we have not tried this variation we are unable to guarantee the results. You may also like to try Nigella's Easy Almond Cake, this recipe uses marzipan but it would probably be possible to use almond paste instead.