Simnel cake. I've never attempted a Simnel Cake before as my late mother traditionally made our family cake, but I decided to make this as a reminder of happy Easters spent together. This recipe was easy to follow. A simnel cake is a key part of Easter baking.

It is a light fruit cake which is covered in marzipan. Often the top is decorated with Easter decorations. Simnel cake has long been a traditional treat at Easter Time but somehow it is being lost. You can have Simnel cake using 30 ingredients and 10 steps. Here is how you cook it.

Ingredients of Simnel cake

Prepare of For the marzipan:.
You need 100 g of ground almonds.
Prepare 100 g of icing sugar, plus extra to dust.
You need 2 of free-range egg yolks.
It's 2 tbsp. of lemon juice.
You need of For the cake:.
It's 5 tbsp. of milk.
It's 1 of good pinch of saffron.
Prepare 150 g of raisins.
It's 150 g of sultanas.
You need 40 g of brandy, vin santo or white rum.
It's 50 g of bleached almonds.
You need 175 g of plain flour.
It's 1 tsp of baking powder.
It's 45 g of ground almonds.
You need 1/2 tsp of fine salt.
Prepare 2 tsp of mixed spice.
It's 180 g of butter, at room temperature.
You need 180 g of soft, light brown sugar.
You need 3 of eggs.
It's 1 tbsp. of golden syrup.
Prepare of zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange.
Prepare 50 g of glacé cherries, halved.
You need 50 g of mixed peel.
Prepare of apricot jam, to brush over the cake.
Prepare of For the icing:.
Prepare 30 g of caster sugar.
You need 25 g of butter.
You need 20 g of lemon juice.
It's 110 g of icing sugar.

Which is a great shame as it tastes absolutely delicious. The Simnel Cake has a very long history dating back to Medieval times. Simnel Cake - a British Easter tradition. A light fruitcake with a layer.

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..

The simnel cake is a classic cake for Easter appears sometime around the end of Lent. The cake signifies the end of Lent which is a period of fasting and repentance culminating in a feast of seasonal. Simnel Cake. this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines. Simnel Cake is an Easter classic that comes at just the right time after Christmas to fill the need for a good. Simnel cake is a very light fruit cake that is famous in the UK.