Hello everybody, I hope you’re having an incredible day today. Today, we’re going to make a distinctive dish, easter simnel cake. One of my favorites food recipes. This time, I am going to make it a bit unique. This is gonna smell and look delicious.
Easter Simnel Cake is one of the most popular of recent trending foods on earth. It’s simple, it’s fast, it tastes delicious. It is appreciated by millions daily. They are fine and they look fantastic. Easter Simnel Cake is something which I have loved my entire life.
Just made this Simnel Cake and it came together beautifully. I added some almond essence to the batter as well as a little cinnamon allspice ginger and nutmeg. Simnel cake was traditionally given by servant girls to their mothers when they returned home on Mothering Sunday and it's now become a classic Easter cake. Alternatively, heat gently in a pan, stirring now and then until the liquid has been absorbed and leave to cool.
To begin with this particular recipe, we must prepare a few ingredients. You can cook easter simnel cake using 18 ingredients and 14 steps. Here is how you cook it.
The ingredients needed to make Easter Simnel Cake:
- Get 175 g raisins
- Make ready 175 g sultanas
- Get 50 g mixed peel, chopped if necessary
- Get 4 tbsp brandy, whisky or golden or dark rum
- Prepare 50 g whole skinned almonds
- Take 175 g self raising flour
- Prepare 45 g ground almonds
- Get 1/2 tsp fine salt
- Get 11/2 tsp mixed spice
- Get 180 g butter, softened
- Get 180 g soft, light brown sugar
- Get 3 eggs, lightly beaten
- Make ready Zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange
- Prepare 50 g glacé cherries, halved
- Make ready 1 tbsp golden syrup
- Get 75 ml milk
- Get 700 g marzipan
- Get Sugar syrup, apricot jam or marmalade, to top
Simnel cake is a light fruitcake formerly eaten during the pre-Easter period in the United Kingdom, Ireland and some other countries but has become a traditional cake for Easter Sunday. It is distinguished by two layers of almond paste or marzipan, one in the middle and one on top. The top layer is capped by a circle of "eggs" made of the same paste, and is lightly browned under a grill. Originally, this cake was made for Mothering Sunday, but it has for a long, long time been an essential Easter confection, the marzipan balls on top representing the apostles: eleven in total as, for understandable reasons, Judas is persona non grata.
Instructions to make Easter Simnel Cake:
- Mix the raisins, sultanas and dried peel in a bowl and pour in the rum, stir, cover and leave to soak. You can do this a couple of hours ahead if you want to.
- Butter a 20in loose bottomed cake tin, then line the base and sides with baking parchment. Cut a second disc of parchment the same size as the base, and set aside for later. Heat the oven to 130C/1/2 Gas.
- Gently toast the whole almonds in a medium oven until golden, keep an eye on them, set aside to cool. Put the flour, baking powder, ground almonds, salt and mixed spice in a large bowl, whisk together to mix and lose any lumps.
- Beat the softened butter in a food processor, or with an electric beater or a vigorously applied wooden spoon until soft, then beat in the sugar. Continue beating until light and fluffy.
- Add the beaten egg to the mixture, a little at a time, continuing to mix. Add a little flour in between the egg to prevent curdling.
- Add the remaining flour mixture and the orange and lemon zests, and fold in with a metal spoon.
- Roughly chop the toasted almonds and add to the mixture.
- Add the cherries, soaked fruit and rum, and golden syrup to the bowl, and mix well, then stir in the milk so you have a soft dropping consistency.
- Add half of the cake mixture to the tin, and smooth level. Roll out about 200g of the marzipan to a disc just smaller than your tin, and place on top of the cake mixture.
- Spoon the rest of the cake mixture in to the tin, smooth the top, and gently place the disc of baking parchment on top. Bake in the oven for 2 and a half hours. This is an unusually long, slow bake, but the end result was perfect.
- When the cake is cooked (test with a skewer), remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin until you can handle it, then remove the tin and baking parchment.
- To decorate brush the top of the cake with warmed apricot jam or marmalade. Roll out a disk of marzipan and use the base of the tin to cut an exact circle. Place on top of the cake.
- Form an edging of marzipan to fit round the outside of the top and mark with a fork. Toast briefly under the grill if you wish until golden. Stick on with more jam.
- Fill the centre with thick glacé icing and decorate with little eggs or other Easter decorations.
The top layer is capped by a circle of "eggs" made of the same paste, and is lightly browned under a grill. Originally, this cake was made for Mothering Sunday, but it has for a long, long time been an essential Easter confection, the marzipan balls on top representing the apostles: eleven in total as, for understandable reasons, Judas is persona non grata. Simnel cake is a traditional Easter fruitcake, packed with dried fruit and spices and topped with sweet marzipan. We wanted to see the best simnel cake, be it plain or decorated. We were after a moist, well-spiced sponge with juicy dried fruit.
So that’s going to wrap it up for this special food easter simnel cake recipe. Thank you very much for reading. I am confident you will make this at home. There’s gonna be interesting food in home recipes coming up. Don’t forget to bookmark this page on your browser, and share it to your loved ones, colleague and friends. Thank you for reading. Go on get cooking!
