At Easter, I like to make food gifts for family, friends and neighbours. This year I decided to make small Simnel cakes. At 4" in diameter, they are small enough to be cute (without venturing into dinky territory), and large enough to provide four or five respectable slices.
Presentation and transportability are important when giving food gifts. I save pretty glass jars from jams and jellies, tin trays from pre packaged meals, plastic tubs that held fruit, all of which can be pressed into service when giving gifts of baking or preserves. These can of course be bought from shops and many worthy websites, but I like to be resourceful, and cupboards full of empty jam jars and small cardboard trays waiting to be used bring me peculiar pleasure.
For the Simnel cakes, I first wrapped a small square of cling film round the bottom of the cakes, so that they could be carried without sticking to the fingers. I wrapped a collar of greaseproof paper round the cake, folded over and snipped at regular intervals to lend a festive air. This was secured at the back with a clean dressmakers pin. Over this, I wrapped a strip of bright tissue paper, holding it in place at the back until I whipped out the pin from the greaseproof paper, and re-pinned through both layers. Then a length of broad ribbon, followed by raffia or baker's string to finish off. Any cakes going a distance in the car will have a further loose enclosure of cling film, or cellophane. A ribbon can be added, and a small pretty label. ( I have found that lowering decorated cakes into cellophane bags is terribly difficult to manage neatly without damage to the cake, so now cut a square and sit the cake on top, bringing up the corners to a point, and securing).
Decorating Simnel cakes with a thick disc of marzipan and marzipan balls is easy. The cakes are traditionally placed under a hot grill to give the characteristic toasted look (or blow-torched of course), however I make life much easier for myself by brushing some Sugarflair paste concentrate in 'Chestnut' on the marzipan balls instead.
I used (marginally adapted) Jane Brocket's recipe from 'Vintage Cakes, tremendously good cakes for sharing and giving'. Full of old fashioned, hard working cake recipes, this is a book I have turned to many times. I made double quantities, which gave me five x four inch cakes. Single quantities give one x eight inch cake.
Ingredients.
500g marzipan
400g mixed dried fruit (raisins, sultanas, currants)
50g mixed peel
50g glace cherries, rinsed, drained and quartered
finely grated zest of one orange and one lemon
175g plain flour
1 level teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons mixed spice
175g butter at room temp
175g light soft brown sugar
4 L eggs
2 tablespoons apricot jam
icing sugar, for dusting
Method
Preheat oven to Gas 2
Roll out 400g of the marzipan on a surface dusted with icing sugar, and cut two 20cm discs, using your intended cake tin as a guide, pressing the top rim into the marzipan and cutting slightly inside the lines. Lay aside, wrapped in cling film. Keep any scraps wrapped in cling film and set aside.
Grease and line cake tin.
Place dried fruit and grated zest in a bowl.
Sift dry ingredients in a bowl.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy using electric hand held whisk or stand mixer, until light coloured and fluffy.
Add the eggs and flour alternately until the mixture is thoroughly combined.
Tip in the dried fruit and zests, mixing by hand until thoroughly combined.
Spoon half the mixture into the prepared tin, then drop in one of the pre-cut discs of marzipan. Spoon the remaining mixture into the tin, and smooth with the back of a spoon.
Bake for 2-2 1/2 hours, until well risen. Bear in mind the marzipan layer will be soft and sticky when sticking a skewer or cocktail stick in the cake to test for done-ness, so might give a misleading result. The top of the cake will be firm, and dark golden brown.
Place on a wire rack and allow to cool before turning out.
When the cake is completely cold, brush the top generously with the apricot jam, warmed slightly to help it spread. Cover with the second disc of marzipan, pinching the edges if liked, to give a crimped effect. Roll the remaining marzipan, and any scraps from making the discs, into eleven equal sized balls, placing one in the middle, and the rest evenly spaced round the cake. Brushing the undersides of the balls with a little water helps them stick. Grill very carefully, or blow torch very carefully, or brush with colouring as I do. Decorate with pretty ribbon.
The smell of spices, citrus, and cake wafting round the kitchen signal 'celebration' to me, and making fruit cakes, at Easter and Christmas is one of the great pleasures in life. Happy Easter.
