How to make a traditional Simnel cake for Easter

Hot cross buns aren’t the only baked good associated with this Christian festival. The Simnel cake — a rich fruit cake — is too.

Like its cousin the Christmas cake, this one is studded with dried fruit, spice and all things nice. However, while the December version is enriched with brandy, the Simnel cake features marzipan in the centre and on top and is decorated with 11 balls of marzipan symbolising Jesus’s disciples minus Judas.

The origins of this cake can be traced back to the 1600s when the tradition was that young girls working in the kitchens of the wealthy would return home on the fourth Sunday of Lent bearing the cake as proof of their cooking skills.

I’ve used this recipe from my much-used copy of The Reader's Digest South African Cookbook, first published in the 1980s, for many years with minor adjustments.

Makes: 1 large cake

Ingredients:

125g butter, softened

125g soft brown sugar

3 large eggs, beaten

150g (1 ⅓ cups) flour

Pinch of salt

10ml (2 tsp) ground mixed spice

400g cake dried fruit – raisins, sultanas, currants and candied peel

Finely grated rind of 1 lemon

500g readymade marzipan

10ml (2 tsp) smooth apricot jam, warmed

1 egg white, lightly beaten

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 140°C and line an 18cm cake tin with baking paper.
2. To make the cake batter, cream together the butter and brown sugar using an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in the eggs, adding ⅓ at a time.
4. Sieve the flour, salt and mixed spice and add to the creamed butter mixture with the dried fruit and lemon rind. Mix through.
5. Roll out the marzipan and use ⅔ of it to cut 2 x 18cm circles, one for the centre of the cake, the other for the top.
6. Place half the batter mixture into the cake tin. Top with one circle of marzipan and add the rest of the batter, smoothing the top.
7. Bake for 90–120 minutes. Then allow the cake to cool in the tin.
8. Remove the cooled cake from the tin and brush the top with the warmed apricot jam. Place the second circle of marzipan on top of the cake, using the remaining marzipan to make 11 small balls to go around the edges.
9. Brush the top of the marzipan and the 11 balls lightly with beaten egg and preheat the oven grill. Place the cake under the grill, not too close to the element, and, keeping a close eye on it, brown the marzipan.
10. I like to fill the centre of the top of the cake with a selection of small Easter eggs and serve it on Easter Sunday.