Individual Simnel Cakes

Individual Simnel Cakes

Rich Christmas Cake long gone, a distant memory, around the corner yellow daffodils, forsythia, bird song and spring. Time for baking Simnel Cakes.

Traditionally Simnel Cake is one big cake with 11 little marzipan eggs on top signifying 11 of the disciples, minus Judas. It’s believed that Simnel Cake is eaten post-Lent, an indulgent reward with plenty of rich sweet ingredients that you’re denied during the fasting period. However, originally Simnel Cake was made by daughters to give to their mothers on Mothering Sunday.

Thinking Easter, everyone looks forward to receiving their irresistible chocolate Easter Egg. I decided to add an element of rich dark chocolate to these little Easter delights.

Makes 10
Fan Gas 3 / 160ºC
45 – 50 mins
Lined individual tins
Or lined muffin tray

Ingredients
225 g light muscovado sugar
225 g softened butter
4 large eggs, beaten
225 g self-raising flour
50g ground almond
2 level tsp ground mixed spice
1/4 tsp cinnamon
100 g glacé cherries
225 g sultanas
100 g currants
grated rind of 2 lemons
Filling and topping
450 g golden marzipan
2 tbsp apricot jam
100g dark chocolate

Method
Cream butter & sugar
Beat in eggs adding a little flour
Mix spices into the flour
Fold in the rest of the flour
Fold fruit into the mixture

Roll marzipan to 3mm depth
Cut 20 disks, to fit into & on top of your tins
Put 2 heaped tsp of mixture into lined tin
Place 1 disk of marzipan onto mixture
Put another 2 heaped tsp’s on top of marzipan
Level top, bake in centre of oven till rich brown – not burnt
Leave to cool in tin for 20 mins before removing from tin

Slice the top off the cake to give a flat surface for marzipan disc
Melt chocolate
Cover half marzipan disk, I used a bread dough cutter/ scraper, spread melted chocolate on the other half
Allow chocolate to set
Melt apricot jam & brush on flat surface of cake
Place marzipan disk on top
Tie ribbon, lace, string, your choice around the middle

Make 10 small marzipan eggs
Blister the marzipan surface till golden
Place on top of marzipan disc

Tips
Individual tins: a while ago I recycled some sweetcorn tins to make individual dauphinois potatoes so I used these as my muffin tins weren’t as deep as I wanted.
If recycling sweetcorn tins as I did, make sure you cut out both ends of the tin to make a cylinder that you can push your cake out through when cooked.
To prevent the mixture curdling causing an uneven bake, add a small amount of flour with the eggs.
Don’t skewer your cake to check if it’s cooked, the moist marzipan will stick to your skewer making you think it isn’t cooked.
Marzipan disks, I used the sweetcorn tin to cut disc
To smooth the chocolate, dip a flat bladed knife into hot water then lightly glide over the chocolate.
To blister the marzipan pan till golden use a kitchen blow torch, try to get a yellow flame not to use a blue as blue will burn. If you don’t have a kitchen blow torch you can blister under a grill.

Recipe adapted from Mary Berry, BBC Radio 4 Women’s Hour September 2012

Photo credit: copywrite ©2015 Sara J Orme