Plums and marzipan are one of the most overlooked pairings in Danish baking. The tart fruit cuts straight through the marzipan’s sweetness, and the result tastes far more complex than the short ingredient list suggests. It’s a cake for late summer and early autumn, when plums are cheap and still firm.
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This plum cake with marzipan is a classic butter cake. The marzipan is grated and beaten together with butter and sugar, so it spreads through the whole batter instead of sitting as a sweet layer at the bottom. The plum halves are pressed down into the batter just before baking, and as they bake they sink down and leave small, juicy pockets in the crumb. Finally, a dusting of icing sugar — nothing more is needed.
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
Table of Contents:
Why I love plum cake with marzipan in the air fryer
An air fryer is essentially a small convection oven, and that’s exactly why it’s so well suited to a butter cake of this type. The cooking chamber is small, so it comes up to temperature right away, and the air circulates tightly around the pan. That gives an evenly golden surface and an edge that turns slightly crisp, while the centre stays moist. Compared with a regular oven, you typically save 20-30 percent on the time.
There’s also a practical side to it. A plum cake is rarely baked in large batches — it’s eaten the same day or the day after. Turning on the air fryer instead of the oven for a single pan is both faster and cheaper, and that’s probably the main reason the cake has become a fixture of my season.
Why the marzipan goes in the batter, not on top
Marzipan placed on top melts, turns sticky and burns easily, because it sits closest to the heat. If the marzipan is grated coarsely and beaten together with the soft butter and sugar instead, the almond fat spreads through the whole batter. That’s what gives the moist crumb that keeps for days. The marzipan needs to be at room temperature before you grate it — cold marzipan clumps and leaves hard lumps in the batter.
My kitchen test of plum cake with marzipan
I baked the cake in my Philips XXL, and 160 °C for 35 minutes is the point where the crumb sets all the way through, without the surface getting too dark. When I turned up the heat, the top set too quickly while the centre around the plums was still raw — the plum juice makes exactly that area slower to finish baking.
With 20 minutes of preparation and 10 minutes of cooling at the end, the whole job lands at 65 minutes from raw ingredients to serving plate. The cooling time is non-negotiable: if you cut into the cake straight away, the warm plums fall apart and the crumb turns gummy, even though it’s actually fully baked.
Turn the plum halves with the cut side facing up. That way the juice stays in the fruit instead of running down into the batter and making the base wet.
Tips and tricks from the author: Morten Jensen
The typical mistakes and how to avoid them
The mistake I see most often is too high a temperature. Instinct says an air fryer should run hot, but a butter cake needs time, and high heat gives you a dark crust over a raw centre — stick to 160 °C, even if it feels low. The next mistake is about the fruit: if the plums are overripe, they release so much juice that the batter around them turns heavy and wet. Choose firm plums, and blot the cut side with a piece of kitchen paper before pressing the halves down into the batter. The third mistake happens right at the end, when the icing sugar goes onto a piping hot cake and melts away into the surface. Let the cake have its 10 minutes of rest first, and the dusting will turn out white and clear.
How to serve plum cake with marzipan
The cake is perfectly fine on its own with afternoon coffee, but it’s lifted noticeably by something cold and tangy on the side:
- A scoop of vanilla ice cream, melting into the warm crumb
- Lightly whipped cream without sugar — the cake is sweet enough already
- 38% crème fraîche stirred with grated lemon zest
- A glass of cold milk or a cup of black coffee
Storage and reheating
The marzipan makes the cake unusually long-lasting. Covered on the kitchen counter, it stays moist for a couple of days, and it actually gets better the next day, once the plum juice has spread into the crumb. The fridge, on the other hand, you should avoid — it dries out the crumb and makes the marzipan firm. If the cake needs to keep longer, cut it into pieces and freeze them individually. Thaw at room temperature, and optionally give the piece a short spell in the air fryer on low heat, so the edge turns crisp again.
Plum cake with marzipan requires no technique, but it rewards patience: the right temperature, firm plums, and a few minutes of rest before you cut it. Get those three things right, and the rest is hard to get wrong.
FAQ
Yes, but they need to thaw completely and drain in a sieve first. Frozen plums release noticeably more juice than fresh ones, and if that juice ends up in the batter, the crumb around the fruit turns gummy. Blot the cut sides dry with kitchen paper before pressing the halves down into the batter.
Both metal and silicone work, as long as there are a few centimetres of air all the way around the pan. The hot air needs to circulate freely, otherwise the cake bakes unevenly. Measure the inside of your basket before choosing a pan.
The fan in an air fryer makes the surface hotter than the same temperature would in a regular oven. At 160 °C, the crumb has time to set all the way through in the 35 minutes, without the top getting too dark.
Recipe
Plum cake with marzipan in the Air Fryer
Cooking Guide
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Airfryer size
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Recommended equipment
- 1 Air fryer
- 1 Springform pan - 18 cm
- 1 Mixing bowl
- 1 Electric mixer
- 1 Grater
- 1 Cutting board
- 1 Knife
- 1 Parchment paper - For the air fryer
Shopping list
Ingredients
How to make it
Preparation
- Halve the 4 pcs plums and remove the stones. Set the halves aside with the cut side facing up.
- Grease an 18 cm springform pan with 1 tbsp butter, and line the base with parchment paper. Check that the pan can stand freely in the air fryer basket with room for air around it.
Batter
- Grate the 100 g marzipan coarsely on a grater, so it’s easier to mix evenly into the batter.
- Beat the 100 g butter and 100 g sugar pale and fluffy with an electric mixer. Add the grated marzipan a little at a time, and keep beating for 2-3 minutes, until the mixture is smooth and free of lumps.
- Add the 2 pcs eggs one at a time, beating well between each egg.
- Fill the batter into the greased pan, and smooth the surface. Press the plum halves firmly into the batter with the cut side facing up, so they sit side by side across the entire surface.
Cooking in the air fryer
- Preheat the air fryer to 160 °C fan.
- Place the pan in the basket, and bake the cake at 160 °C for 35 minutes. Loosely lay a piece of parchment paper over the top after about 20 minutes if the surface is browning too much. The cake is done when a thin skewer comes out clean from the centre.
Serving
- Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, before loosening the edge and carefully lifting it onto a wire rack.
- Dust the 1 tbsp icing sugar over the slightly cooled cake through a sieve, and serve the cake warm or completely cold.
Our notes for the recipe
Use firm, ripe plums. Plums that are too soft release too much juice and make the batter heavy and wet around the fruit. Press the halves firmly into the batter so they stay in place during baking and aren’t pushed up by the rising batter. Marzipan:
Grate the marzipan coarsely and let it sit with the butter and sugar while mixing. This helps it spread evenly and leaves no lumps in the finished cake. Variation:
Replace the plums with apricots, nectarines or apples cut into thin wedges. Half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon or cardamom in the batter goes well with the marzipan. Serving:
Serve the cake warm with a dollop of lightly whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Cold, it’s just as good with coffee the next day. Portion size:
The cake is baked in an 18 cm springform pan and serves 4 generous slices or 6-8 smaller ones. If you have a small air fryer, measure the basket beforehand. The pan needs to stand freely with air all the way around.
Your notes for the recipe
Nutrition per serving (Guideline)
Important about shelf life and nutrition
Nutrition per serving (guideline): Calculations are based on data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Shelf life (guideline): Shelf life data is provided, as far as possible, by public institutions, including national food authorities. Our information is therefore only indicative, and it is your responsibility to obtain and calculate accurate information about shelf life and nutrition for all recipes on airfryerkogebogen.dk
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