Can I Bake The Marzipan Loaf Cake In An Air Fryer?

Our answer

Nigella's Marzipan Loaf Cake (from COOK, EAT, REPEAT) is a moist almond cake made with marzipan or almond paste and baked in a 450g (1-pound) loaf tin. It is possible to bake some cakes in an air fryer, as they are essentially high-powered fan ovens, but there are some things to consider first.

The first issue is whether the cake pan will fit into your air fryer and have space for the cake to rise slightly above the top of the pan without getting too close to the heating element. A 450g loaf pan should fit into most air fryers but you should check first. Some air fryers have a bake setting and if yours has this setting then you should use this (adjusting the baking time). Otherwise the air fryer temperature should be set at 150C (for the US this will be 300F) and you may need to preheat the air fryer for a few minutes before you bake the cake. The main problem for this particular cake is that the top of the cake browns very quickly and this is likely to happen even more quickly in an air fryer, so you may need to cover the top of the cake with foil after 20-25 minutes of baking. But you need to make sure that the foil doesn't become dislodged by the force of the fan in the air fryer, so you may need to fold or scrunch the foil underneath the lip of the loaf pan to secure it in place. The cake baking time may also be slightly shorter, so start checking it after 35 minutes of baking.