Simnel Cake 2010: Mothering Sunday revisited

Last year I posted a recipe for Simnel Cake, a recipe associated with in England, or especially particular towns in the northern counties, with the Fourth Sunday in Lent or Mothering Sunday.

This is often regarded in western or Catholic Christianity as a sort of mid-point at which some pause in the Lent fast can be allowed. It is known by a wide variety of names: Laetare Sunday (from the opening words of the Mass of the day, "Laetare Jerusalem", rejoice O Jerusalem), Mid-Lenting Sunday, Refreshment Sunday and more.

Probably named from the Latin simila (fine flour), this had quite varied forms in different towns, but tends now to mean a fruit cake, flavoured with almond paste and often decorated with balls, eleven of them for the eleven (faithful) apostles. Contrary to some commentaries in the gastro-blogosphere, this is not an "Easter" cake unless you assume "Easter" is the period before the feast rather than after it.

This version owes something to that published in Helen Jerome's Concerning Cake Making (1932). This is close enough to traditional versions to be a far cry from the generic fruit cake that now tends to be presented. In last year's version I was purist enough to omit leavening, but have added it now with good effect; there are a few other improvements, and the cake was moist and delicious this time.

Ingredients
-Cake
110g/4oz butter or margarine
110g/4 oz caster sugar
3 eggs
160g/6oz self-raising flour, or 6oz plain/all-purpose flour sifted with 1/2 tsps baking powder
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp saffron threads, soaked in 1 Tbp boiling water (optional)
150g currants
200 g sultanas (small or golden raisins, to US readers)
50g candied peel
2-3 Tbps apricot jam or other jam or marmalade

-Almond Paste (Marzipan)
150g/5oz caster sugar
150g/5oz almond meal/ground almonds(*)
1 tsp almond essence, optional
1 egg, beaten

Method
Make almond paste: combine sugar and almond meal, add beaten egg (and essence if using), mix to a thick soft paste and set aside.

Pre-heat a fairly slow (160C/275F) oven. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy, add eggs one at a time and beat well to combine until smooth and light. Add flour and salt, then fold in dried fuit and peel, and saffron water if using.

Line and grease an 8" cake tin, and spoon half the mixture into it. Take 1/3 of the almond paste and roll between two sheets of cling wrap into a circle the same size as the cake tin. Remove one sheet of cling, and invert paste circle across the mixture in the tin, removing remaining film carefully. This layer need not be picture perfect.

Cover with remaining cake mixture, smooth top, and bake 60 minutes. Check with a skewer to make sure cake is cooked through. Remove cake and cool.

When ready, spread jam across top of cake. Roll 1/2 of the remaining paste into another circle between cling sheets, using cake tin as a guide for size, place across the cake and trim/patch as necessary.

Use the rest of the paste to make eleven balls. To finish, the cake is to be browned in a 180C/350F oven for 5-10 minutes. You may choose first to brown the balls for a few minutes on a baking sheet next to the cake, then place them on top, with a little additional jam to stick; alternatively, stick balls on cake before returning to the oven for browning.

(*)I used a mixture of regular almond meal and ground apricot kernels (about 25g), which are more strongly almond-flavoured, and omitted the essence. Apricot kernels are a source of the almond flavour found in marzipan etc.