Simnel Cake
For this post we have a guest writer from The Country Kitchen, a home bakery in West Sussex whose focus is on making delicious and healthy baked goods. This recipe is their own spin on a traditional ‘Simnel Cake’. Typically, the cake is decorated with a layer of toasted marzipan on top and marzipan balls representing Jesus’s Apostles, eleven or twelve dependent on whether you choose to include Judas. For this Simnel Cake however, The Country Kitchen suggest cutting back on the sugar and rich marzipan, and opting instead for crystalized edible flowers to represent springtime - a change we think is an interesting and quirky alternative!
What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Easter? Chocolate? The Easter Bunny? Having to come up with an even more inventive place to hide the secret hoard of Easter Eggs you have saved for the children? It seems like nowadays Easter fare revolves more around chocolate and sweets than the more traditional recipes, such as Hot Cross Buns and of course, Simnel Cake.
Typically made on the last day of Lent to signify the end of the fasting period, Simnel Cake contains many of the ‘forbidden’ Lenten foods such as dried fruit, marzipan and spices. However, Simnel Cake has not always been an Easter Day tradition. Originally, they were made by working girls who would give the cakes as gifts to their mothers on Mothering Sunday, when they would have the day off work and travel home to their families. It was not until Victorian times that we started to include the Simnel Cake in our Easter Lunch, as opposed to Mothering Sunday, the one day in Lent where we are allowed to loosen our fasting belts.
Ingredients
200g Unsalted Butter, soft
180g Light Muscovardo Sugar
20g Dark Muscovardo Sugar
x4 Eggs, beaten
225g Self Raising Flour
2 tsp. Ground Mixed Spice
450g Sultanas, Raisins and Currents
50g Chopped Candied Peel
100g Glace Cherries
1 Lemon
1 Orange
150g Marzipan
To Decorate:
x1 Egg White
11 or 12 Edible Spring Flowers, such as primroses, violates or roses
2 tbsp. Caster Sugar
2-3 tbsp. Apricot Jam
Directions
For the Decorations:
- The day before you bake the cake, make the crystallized flowers. Trim the stalks of the flowers and gently clean the petals if necessary.
- Whisk the egg white in a glass bowl until light and frothy, and paint both sides of the petals with the egg white using a small paint brush. Sprinkle a little caster sugar over the flowers and leave to dry on baking paper, then store in an airtight container.
For the Cake:
- Preheat the oven to 150°C and grease a deep 20cm (9-inch) cake tin, lining the base & sides with baking paper.
- Start out by rinsing the cherries to remove their sticky coating then cut into quarters. Place in a heavy saucepan along with the raisins, sultanas, currents and chopped candied peal.
- Zest and juice the orange and lemon then add the juices to the pan. Simmer for three to four minutes, or until the liquid has been absorbed, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
- Beat the butter and sugars in a large bowl until light and creamy, and then slowly add the eggs, beating well in between each addition.
- Sift the flour and mixed spice together and mix in a little at a time, making sure not to over beat the mixture.
- Stir the cooled dried fruit into the mixture along with the orange and lemon zest, mixing until the fruit is evenly spread through the mixture.
- Spoon half the cake mixture into the tin, making sure the surface is perfectly level. You may need to shake the tin slightly to achieve this.
- Roll the marzipan into a circle & place on top. Spoon the remaining mixture over and bake for 2¼ - 2½ hours until well-risen and firm when pressed. It should be a deep golden colour but not over brown. If you find the cake is browning too quickly, place a lid of foil over the top and continue baking.
- Once cooked, leave to the cake in the tin for 15 minutes then turn out onto a rack.
- To decorate the cake, sieve and warm the apricot jam then brush over the top of the cake. Arrange the crystallized flowers on top, tie a coloured ribbon around the edge and present at your Easter table.
If all this looks a bit daunting and you’d prefer one professionally made, contact pippa@thecountrykitchenuk.com by April 11th.