Simnel cake. Simnel cake is a traditional Easter fruitcake, packed with dried fruit and spices and topped with sweet marzipan. The Simnel Cake has a very long history dating back to Medieval times. Simnel Cake – a British Easter tradition.
This cake is traditionally served on Mothering Sunday. Sweeter and more spring-like than Christmas cake, with marzipan disciples assembled on the top, does this feast-day favourite merit a comeback, or will you be sticking to hot cross buns? Simnel cake is a very light fruit cake that is famous in the UK. You can have Simnel cake using 30 ingredients and 10 steps. Here is how you achieve it.
Ingredients of Simnel cake
- You need of For the marzipan:.
- It’s 100 g of ground almonds.
- Prepare 100 g of icing sugar, plus extra to dust.
- It’s 2 of free-range egg yolks.
- It’s 2 tbsp. of lemon juice.
- It’s of For the cake:.
- You need 5 tbsp. of milk.
- It’s 1 of good pinch of saffron.
- You need 150 g of raisins.
- It’s 150 g of sultanas.
- Prepare 40 g of brandy, vin santo or white rum.
- It’s 50 g of bleached almonds.
- You need 175 g of plain flour.
- You need 1 tsp of baking powder.
- You need 45 g of ground almonds.
- You need 1/2 tsp of fine salt.
- Prepare 2 tsp of mixed spice.
- Prepare 180 g of butter, at room temperature.
- You need 180 g of soft, light brown sugar.
- Prepare 3 of eggs.
- It’s 1 tbsp. of golden syrup.
- It’s of zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange.
- You need 50 g of glacé cherries, halved.
- Prepare 50 g of mixed peel.
- You need of apricot jam, to brush over the cake.
- It’s of For the icing:.
- It’s 30 g of caster sugar.
- It’s 25 g of butter.
- It’s 20 g of lemon juice.
- It’s 110 g of icing sugar.
It is covered in marzipan then toasted with almond paste is baked into the middle of the cake. Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted. The simnel cake is a classic cake for Easter appears sometime around the end of Lent. The Simnel cake is associated with Easter today, but was originally made for Mothering Sunday, the fourth Sunday in Lent.
Simnel cake instructions
- Put the raisins and sultanas in a mixing bowl or a small zip lock bag. Heat up the spirits to almost boiling, pour it into the fruit and mix well. Seal the bag or cover the bowl and leave for a few hours, best overnight, to soak..
- Butter and line with parchment a 20cm deep cake tin. Prepare another disc of parchment the size of the tin to place on top of the cake, to stop it from burning. Preheat the oven to 150C/300F/gas 2..
- Warm up the milk and put the saffron strands into it to soak. Toast the almonds in a dry frying pan or in hot oven on a baking tray for 10-15 minutes until they turn golden. Cool and chop roughly..
- Mix the flour with the baking powder, ground almonds, salt and mixed spice and put to one side. Beat the butter in an electric mixer, add the sugar and beat well until the mixture turns pale and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating continuously, alternating with a little flour mix. Beat in the rest of the flour, golden syrup, zest and the milk with saffron..
- Drain the soaked fruit if necessary – but all the liquid should have been absorbed. Stir them into the cake batter together with the chopped almonds, peel and glace cherries..
- Take the marzipan out of the fridge and roll it out on a surface dusted with icing sugar to a disc the size of your tin. Spoon half the cake batter into the tin, place the marzipan disc in and spoon the rest of the cake mix on top..
- Smooth the surface with a spatula and place the parchment disc on top..
- Bake the cake for about 1 ¾ – 2 hours until a skewer inserted in the middle (not too deep because of the marzipan layer) comes out clean. Cool in the tin, unmould and brush the top and sides with the apricot jam warmed up slightly in a small pan..
- To make the icing, bring the butter, caster sugar and lemon juice to the boiling point then pour over the icing sugar. Whisk to a smooth paste, add some yellow food colouring for extra Easter cheer..
- Spread the icing over the top of the cake with a palette knife, making sure no crumbs mix into the icing and spoil the effect. Leave to set..
This delicious fruit and marzipan concoction is an Easter classic. The definitive Easter dessert, Mary Berry's simnel cake is the perfect bake to share with your family over. Just made this Simnel Cake and it came together beautifully. I did use ready made almond paste Easter Simnel Cake. this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines. Simnel Cake (British Easter Fruit Cake) – Lavender & Macarons.
