Inspired by the traditional German yeasted stollen sweet bread recipe, this soft and moist spiced butter cake has a marzipan nestled inside the cake. It is quite a treat for Christmas celebration.
This recipe makes a small loaf of cake. As stollen butter cake is rich, I usually don't make a big cake. You are welcome to double the recipe if you like and use 9 x 5 loaf pan and increase baking time to 50-55 minutes or until a cake tester inserted comes out clean
Soak the dried fruits:
Soak dried fruits and peels in rum. Cover and let them soak until you are ready to use them later. If you plan ahead, you can soak this weeks before you plan to bake
When ready to use, drain the rum and squeeze out any extra rum from the dried fruits and peels
Prepare the marzipan:
Put all ingredients for marzipan in a large mixing bowl. Combine and mix into a mass. It should be moist and not too sticky. If it's very sticky, add a bit more almond flour.
Transfer to a work surface and knead a few times. Form into a log, about the length of your cake loaf pan and wrap it tightly with a cling wrap. It can be made ahead and kept in the fridge
Prepare the cake batter:
Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C) for a conventional oven. For a convection oven, lower the temperature by 20 F or 15 C
Combine cake flour, almond flour, salt, baking powder, and the spices
Please make sure that the butter is really soft, but not melty. The eggs are at room temperature
Grease the loaf pan with butter you will use for baking on all sides
Cream the butter and sugar until creamy, light, and fluffy with a stand mixer or hand mixer over high speed. The color turns pale too. Then slowly add 1/3 of the egg and continue to beat until it's mixed before adding the next 1/3 until you run out of the egg
Add the soaked fruit and nuts mixture. Fold in 1/3 of the flour mixture using the swipe down and fold over motion. As long as you don't see anymore pockets of flour, don't overmix the batter
Baking:
Spread half of the cake batter into the loaf pan. Smooth it out with a spatula. Place the marzipan log, off center, either to the left or right. Cover with the rest of the cake batter. Smooth it out with a spatula. Knock the loaf pan on the counter 2-3 times
Bake on the middle rack for 40-45 minutes. or until golden brown and a cake tester inserted comes out clean. The time is just for reference. Your oven may need shorter or longer time. You can start checking at about 40-minute mark
Cooling:
Remove the cake from the pan and brush with rum syrup on all sides while the cake is still warm. Sift icing sugar on all sides right after that when it's still warm. Let the cake cools down completely
Age the cake:
Wrap the all cooled-down stollen cake with a plastic wrap and then another layer of aluminum foil and let it "age" for at least 2 days (do 3 days if you can, it tastes even better)
Serving:
Some of the icing sugar gets absorbs by the cake and that's normal. Dust with more icing sugar on top. Slice the cake in the middle and slice the amount you want. Then put the two cut side together and wrap it up again and keep in an air-tight container. The cake stays moist this way at room temperature for days