Simnel cake for HELLO! Magazine.com

This is my take on an Easter simnel cake – what is certain is that it is far from authentic but a really delicious fruity, marzipan rich cake.

This recipe is gluten free but very easily adapted to be dairy free.  It’s also quick to make – no overnight soaking of the fruit or leaving it to mature for a week once cooked. What’s for sure is that everyone will enjoy this cake.

Ingredients

100g sultanas

80g sour cherries

70g stoneless prunes

100ml marsala

100g butter or margarine

100g caster sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp orange flower water

155g Doves Farm Gluten free plain flour

2 eating apples, peeled, cored and cut into 0.5cm cubes

500g marzipan, of which 250g cubed and 250g to roll out/make the balls

Method

1)   Preheat the oven to 140C/Gas Mark 1

2)   Grease and line a 20cm springform cake tin

3)   Place all the dried fruit into a small saucepan with the marsala. Bring to the boil, turn off the heat and let the fruit steep for a further 10 minutes

4)   Cream the butter and sugar together (I do this in my Kitchen Aid) then add the eggs and orange flower water and beat until smooth and well combined. Add the flour and mix well

5)   Pour in the fruit and liquid from the saucepan and add the apples and cubes of marzipan and stir in gently

6)   Pour the bake mixture into the tin and bake for around 90 minutes until a cocktail stick comes out clean

7)   Whilst the cake is baking, roll 11 balls of marzipan to decorate the top. I always chuckle to myself about omitting Judas, as my boyfriend’s car is named Judas, for obvious reasons….

8)   With the remaining marzipan, knead it well until it is nice and smooth (otherwise will crack) and roll out between two sheets of cling film. When the disc of marzipan looked  big enough to cover the cake, it took off the top later of clingfilm and put the base of the springform tin onto the marzipan and cut around the edges neatly to make a nice neat circle. I then flipped it onto the top of the cooled cake whilst stuck to the botton layer of clingfilm and peeled it off. I didn’t bother with sticking the marzipan down with apricot jam (as I didn’t have any) and it worked just fine. I decorated the cake with the marzipan balls before very swiftly cutting a large slice and enjoying it whilst still warm!