Easter Simnel Cake
Packed with dried fruits, delicate spice and a toasted marzipan topping, try our traditional Simnel cake recipe.
Ingredients
225g marzipan
225g plain white flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp salt
175g caster sugar
2 large eggs
45ml whole milk
100g raisins
100g currants
100g glace cherries
50g flaked almonds
zest of 1 orange
10g apricot jam
Method
Line and grease a 20cm round cake tin and preheat your oven to 150 degrees.
Take your marzipan and cut out a 20cm round shape for your decoration.
Take a third of what is left of the marzipan and chop into cubes (the rest will be for decoration).
Toast the almonds in a preheated oven for 10 minutes.
Beat together the butter, sugar, spice, flour and salt. Add in your almonds and marzipan and mix until combined.
Fold in the dried fruits, currants, cherries and orange zest, and then fold in the milk.
Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake in the oven for 1 hour.
Remove and allow to cool.
When cooled, brush over some apricot jam and take your prepared 20cm round shape and place on top of the cake.
With the remaining marzipan, roll out 11 balls to put on top and place on top of the cake in a circle using more apricot jam.
For a golden look, scorch the top lightly with a blow torch.
