Simnel Cake

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Simnel Cake, a classic British Easter bake that is incredibly rich and indulgent, and perfect for enjoying on Mothering Sunday and Easter, and throughout Spring. It's a delicious fruit cake layered in the middle with marzipan and topped with another layer of blow-torched marzipan plus 11 golden marzipan balls, symbolising the apostles, minus Judas.

Prep Time30

Cook Time1 30

Cooling Time2

Total Time4

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: British

Servings: slices

Calories: 579kcal

Author: Daniela Apostol

Ingredients

175 g plain flour (1 ⅓ cup)
175 g salted butter, soft (¾ cup + 2 tbsp)
175 g light brown sugar (¾ cup + 1 tbsp)
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon mixed spice
500 g dried mixed fruit and peel (3 cups)
100 g glace cherries (⅔ cup)
50 g ground almonds (½ cup)
125 ml apple juice (½ cup)
700 g marzipan ( 1 lb 9 oz)
3 large eggs
2 tablespoon jam

Instructions

Add the dried fruit and chopped glace cherries to a pan, pour the juice over, stir well, and leave them to simmer on a medium heat until the liquid is absorbed.
Remove the pan from the heat, and set aside until ready to use.
Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius (320 Fahrenheit).
Add the soft butter and sugar to a large mixing bowl, and use a hand mixer to cream them until you get a smooth texture.
Add the eggs one by one, mixing well after each addition.
Sift in the flour, add the ground almonds, baking powder, ground cinnamon and mixed spice plus the soaked fruit, and mix with a spatula until fully incorporated.
Butter and flour a 20 cm / 8 inch round cake tin.
Roll the marzipan using a rolling pin, and use the cake tin to cut 2 discs out of the marzipan.
Transfer half of the amount of batter to the tin making sure it's in an even layer and top it with one layer of marzipan.
Top the marzipan with the remaining batter, and bake it in the middle of the oven for 1 hour and 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool down completely.
Brush the cake with jam, arrange the second marzipan disc over, and shape 11 balls out of the remaining marpizan.
You might want to brush each marzipan ball with jam so they can stick better to the marzipan disc.
Use a blow torch to caramelise the top slightly.

Video

Notes

Soak the fruit for extra moisture
Don't increase the oven temperature, or the cake will brown on the outside, while the middle stays raw.
Allow the cake to cook down completely before you top it with marzipan, or it will melt or look messy, rather than sophisticated and delicious.
Blow-torching isn't quite a must, the marzipan is fine as it is, but it does make it a lot more appealing.
I find that it's best to slice the cake the next day, while the cake is still a bit warm, it's a lot harder to slice.

Nutrition