Whether this is a religious holiday for you or not, the beginning of spring is a lovely time for people to get together with their friends and family to share food and enjoy some time together.
This year I'm going to my parents so I've baked a traditional Simnel cake. It's pretty heavily based on Mary Berry's recipe, but with a few small twists.
Ingredients
8oz Stork
8oz muscovado sugar
4 eggs
8oz self raising flour
2oz Raisins
8oz sultanas
3oz currants
1oz dried cranberries
4oz glacé cherries
2tbsp apple juice
2tbsp Cranberry juice
1tbsp marsala
2oz chopped candied peel
Zest of 2 lemons
2 tsp sweet mixed spice
Method
Soak the raisins, currants and cranberries in the juice and marsala for a couple of hours.
Cream the butter and sugar together until light an fluffy. Beat in the eggs one by one.
Drain the fruit and stir into the mixture with the zest, candied peel, the rest of the fruit and the spices.
Fold in the flour until it's fully combines and pour into a large (tall) cake tin.
Bake gently at 150 for 2 1/2 hours, until it's firm to the touch and a skewer comes out clean. If the top starts to get a little brown too soon, you can cover with tin foil to protect it while the rest of the cake cooks.
Once baked you decorate a traditional Simnel cake with apricot jam covered in a flat layer of marzipan and 11 marzipan balls.
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