Mary Berry's Simnel Cake

This is the traditional cake for Easter although it was originally used for Mother's Day. One was given to every servant girl by their employer to give to their mother when they returned home on Mother's Day. 

The 11 balls on top of the cake symbollise 11 of the 12 apostles of Jesus (One was a traitor so is not included), this is a very symbolic and traditional cake so I didn't want to change it or jazz it up with chocolate as some things are so historic and so traditional that they shouldn't be changed.

The cake itself is a sort of light fruitcake made with light muscovado sugar to give a darker flavour than caster sugar. It is decorated and filled with marzipan, the marzipan in the middle melts and creates a sticky, sweet and nutty flavour which is very different to your standard fruitcake. 

The grilling/blowtorching on the top seems a bit fancy but it makes the cake look much, much better and very different and more exciting than most cakes. 

I have decorated my cake with a ribbon- this is a finishing touch, if you don't have one don't use it.

Happy Easter,

The Food Kid.

Ingredients

100g/4oz glacé cherries 225g/8oz butter, softened 225g/8oz light muscovado sugar 4 large eggs 225g/8oz self-raising flour 225g/8oz sultanas 100g/4oz currants 50g/2oz chopped candied peel 2 lemons, grated zest only 2 tsp ground mixed spice

450g/1lb marzipan 1-2 tbsp apricot jam, warmed 

Method

Preheat the oven to 150C/280F/Gas 2. Grease and line a 20cm/ 8in cake tin. Cut the cherries into quarters, put in a sieve and rinse under running water. Drain well then dry thoroughly on kitchen paper. Place the cherries in a bowl with the butter, sugar, eggs, self-raising flour, sultanas, currants, candied peel, lemon zest and mixed spice and beat well until thoroughly mixed. Pour half the mixture into the prepared tin. Take one-third of the marzipan and roll it out to a circle the size of the tin and then place on top of the cake mixture. Spoon the remaining cake mixture on top and level the surface. Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 2½ hours, or until well risen, evenly brown and firm to the touch. Cover with aluminium foil after one hour if the top is browning too quickly. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turn out, peel off the parchment and finish cooling on a wire rack. When the cake is cool, brush the top with a little warmed apricot jam and roll out half the remaining marzipan to fit the top. Press firmly on the top and crimp the edges to decorate. Mark a criss-cross pattern on the marzipan with a sharp knife. Form the remaining marzipan into 11 balls. Brush the marzipan with beaten egg and arrange the marzipan balls around the edge of the cake. Brush the tops of the balls with beaten egg and then carefully place the cake under a hot grill or blowtorch until the top is lightly toasted.