This recipe was taken from ‘The Modern Baker: A New Way to Bake’ by Melissa Sharp with Lindsay Stark. You can buy a copy of the book here! Photos by Laura Edwards.
This Simnel cake goes down a treat in the lead up to Easter. Apart from upgrading many of the ingredients for better health, their twist is the addition of goji berries and a few of their favourite spices. The use of dried berries and fruits adds chew and important fibre. Don’t put too much on your plate – this is a rich one!
Makes 20cm round cake
Ingredients
- For the cake:
- 175g unsalted butter
- 175g coconut sugar
- 3 eggs
- 175g spelt flour
- 175g sultanas
- 90g dried cranberries
- 30g dried goji berries
- Zest of 1 lemon, grated
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp mixed spice
- 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- Pinch of salt
- For the decoration:
- Honey or melted butter, for brushing
- Edible flowers, such as nasturtiums and violets, to decorate
- Raw marzipan:
- 340g ground almonds
- 3-4 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2-3 drops of almond extract (optional)
Method
- Preheat the oven to 170℃/fan 150℃/Gas mark 304 and line a 20 cm round, deep, loose bottom cake tin with baking parchment.
- Put all the ingredients into a large bowl. With an electric whisk, beat them together until well combined.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth the top. Bake for 1-2 hours until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
- Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes and then turn out onto a cooling rack.
- Once it’s cool, use the cake tin as a template to cut out a round disc of raw marzipan.
- Brush a little melted butter or honey over the top of the cake and lay the marzipan disc on top.
- Use the remaining marzipan to make 11 equal sized balls to decorate the top of the cake. You can use honey to stick these on as well.
- Top the cake with edible flowers such as nasturtiums and violets.
Raw marzipan:
Our raw marzipan is quick and easy to make, with the maple syrup helping to keep the delicious almond flavour. If you particularly like your marzipan you can also add a few drops of almond extract.
- Mix all the ingredients together to form a dough. Wrap in greaseproof paper and chill until ready to use.
- Roll out the dough between two sheets of baking parchment to 2-3mm. You don’t want to use flour to stop it sticking to the surface, and the paper will also make it easier to pick up.