1. Preheat the oven to 200°C and line a baking tray with parchment paper. Wash the cherries, cut them in half and remove the stones.
2. In a large mixing bowl toss the cherries with the sugar and ground cinnamon. Spread the sugar-coated cherries onto the baking tray and bake them for 20 minutes in the preheated oven.
3. Line a 12 hole muffin tray with cupcake cases and preheat the oven to 180°C. Dice the marzipan in small cubes and set aside
4. Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and bicarbonate of soda into a large mixing bowl, add the zest of one lemon. In a second bowl cream the sugar and eggs until thick fluffy and creamy
5. Melt the butter and stir the melted butter and milk into the creamed eggs, mix. Gently fold the sifted flour mixture into the egg mixture, do not over work the cake batter
6. Spoon a large table spoon of cake batter into each of the cupcake cases, add a teaspoon of the baked cherries and a few dices of the marzipan, top each cupcake case with more cake batter until just below the rim
7. Sprinkle the rest of the diced marzipan on top of the cake batter and bake the cupcakes for 25 minutes
8. Let the cupcakes cool completely on a wire cooling rack.
9. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla pod and add to the soft butter. Cream the butter until light and fluffy, add the mascarpone and mix to cream.
10. Sift the icing sugar over the creamed mascarpone mix and gently fold it in.
11. Garnish each cupcake with a generous amount of the mascarpone frosting and spoon a generous amount of of the baked cherries on top.

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