Easy Simnel Cake

This spectacular Simnel Cake is so easy to make. Baked in a loaf pan, as opposed to the usual round cake tin, it has a fabulous fresh orange drizzle icing, and is decorated with edible flowers (made from wafers and rice paper) as well as mini chocolate eggs and bay leaves. Make this for Mothering Sunday (Mother’s Day) for your mum, or for the Easter Sunday tea time table. It’s a wonderful Spring cake, but it would be enjoyed by friends and family all year round.

Today’s recipe is for a fabulous Easy Simnel Cake, baked in a loaf pan, as opposed to the usual round cake tin, it has a fabulous fresh orange drizzle icing, and is decorated with edible flowers (made from wafers and rice paper) as well as mini chocolate eggs and bay leaves.

Make this for Mothering Sunday (Mother’s Day) for your mum, or for the Easter Sunday tea time table. It’s a wonderful Spring cake, but it would be enjoyed by friends and family all year round.

I remember the first Simnel Cake I made for my mother, it was from an old cookbook, and maybe it was beginner’s luck, but I have never made such a fabulous one since.

However, I think that my new recipe for Easy Simnel Cake is on a par with that cake from many years ago. It’s not baked in the usual round cake tin, as I mentioned before, but DOES still have the traditional marzipan layer through the middle of the cake.

And, it is topped with a delectable fresh orange icing drizzle icing which is simply sublime.

I’ve shared a selection of commercially made Simnel Cake photos below, these show the classic Apostle marzipan balls, which are associated more with Easter, than Mothering Sunday.

Young girls in service were often allowed to make a Simnel cake (donated from the ingredients in the kitchens where they worked) and take the cake home as a gift for their mothers; even better than that, they were often given the day off (or half day) to visit their families – a rare treat, as many of them did not see their families for months at a time, and sometimes only once a year.

The traditional flowers associated with this lovely day are primroses and violets – and bunches of these wild flowers often accompanied the cake; what a wonderful old-fashioned tradition, and one that I hope we can all try to keep alive in these modern times of hustle and bustle, and supermarket bouquets.

I have shared my latest Spring cake recipe below, along with many more cakes that would be great for Mother’s Day, or Easter.

Please DO let me know if you make today’s recipe for Easy Simnel Cake, and let me know what you decorated it with too.

Just a very important tip before I share the recipe.

You must allow the cake to cool IN THE TIN for 2 hours minimum, before taking the cake out and peeling away the baking paper.

It MUST be cool or cold, otherwise the marzipan will leak out from the middle of the cake. And, if you check with a skewer by pushing it into the cake, be careful that you don’t go down as far as the marzipan as it will be runny and you may think the cake is not cooked.

ENJOY this cake if you make it, Karen

Step-by-Step Instructions – how to make this Easy Simnel Cake

• Pre-heat the oven to 160C/140C Fan/300F/Gas mark 3. Grease and line a 2lb (900g) loaf tin with butter and baking paper.
• Mix the flour with the sugar, mixed spice, baking powder and salt.
• Add the grated orange zest and mix again.
• Add the milk and eggs to the flour mixture and then add the cubed butter.
• Beat with an electric hand-mixer until light and creamy, and smooth. Add the dried fruit and glace cherries, and mix well to combine all the ingredients.

• Spoon HALF of the mixture into the prepared loaf tin.
• Roll the block of marzipan on a icing sugar dusted board, until it is a long, rectangular shape that is the same size as the baking tin.
• Cover the cake mixture in the tin with the marzipan and then spoon over the remaining cake mixture. Smooth the top with the back of a spoon.
• Bake for 2 hours, checking the cake after 1 hour 45 minutes to see if it is cooked. See note below

• Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool IN THE TIN for 2 hours minimum, before taking the cake out of the tin and peeling away the baking paper. It MUST be cool or cold, otherwise the marzipan will leak out from the middle of the cake.
• Place the cake on a serving plate/platter and make the icing.
• Make the icing by mixing the icing sugar and orange juice together to make a thick paste, but one that will “drizzle” down the sides of the cake. DON’T add all of the orange juice in one go, but add it gradually, until the desired consistency has been achieved.

• Spoon the icing over the cake, covering the top and allowing it to run down the sides.
• Whilst the icing drizzle is still soft, add all of the decorations, pushing them in gently so they don’t slide off the cake.
• Allow the icing to “set” and become firm before serving the cake in slices.

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