Mini Simnel Cakes Recipe

By James Maddock

Published 19/05/2011

I always like to play around with well-known recipes and during Easter I decided to try something a bit different with Simnel Cake. Looking through some old recipe books I discovered a recipe for Miniature Simnel Cakes. A great idea I thought, with a few changes. The old recipe suggested a topping of marzipan which would then be browned under the grill with a decoration of home-made marzipan "eggs". I thought I'd miss out the grilling and I decided it would be nice to have something a bit chocolatey instead - to my delight mini chocolate easter eggs fitted the bill perfectly. I think these are great little cakes to have all year round and I will definitely be making some more soon!

Ingredients

• 4oz flour
• 3oz caster sugar
• 3oz butter
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• pinch bicarbonate of soda
• 2oz currants
• 2oz raisins
• 2oz candied peel
• 4oz marzipan
• a bag of sugar-coated chocolate eggs
• a little milk

Method

• Sift the ground ginger, mixed spice, bicarbonate of soda and flour into a large mixing bowl (see picture 1).
• In another bowl cream together the butter and sugar. You may want to cut the butter into small cubes to make mixing easier if you are mixing by hand (see picture 2).
• When the mixture is light in texture and pale in colour (see picture 3) stir in the egg (see picture 4).
• Using a metal spoon, stir in the flour (see picture 5) and continue this until all the flour has been incorporated (see picture 6).
• Next add the candied peel, currants and raisins (see picture 7). Add a very small amount of milk if the mixture is too stiff.
• The mix is now ready to be put into non-stick patty tins (see pictures 8 and 9). This mixture is enough to make nine small cakes but you may prefer to make fewer large simnel cakes.
• In a preheated oven, bake at 180 degrees C. for approximately 20 minutes or until the cakes are risen and brown on top.
• When cooked, remove the simnel cakes from the oven and leave them to cool on a wire rack.
• While you are waiting you can begin preparing the marzipan. If you are making your own marzipan then you may wish to follow our recipe or alternatively you can buy ready-made marzipan from the shops.
• On a floured board, roll out the marzipan to your required thickness (see picture 10) and using a fluted cutter, cut out the necessary number of marzipan rounds (1 per cake) (see picture 11).
• Then it is simply a matter of placing the marzipan rounds on each cake (see picture 12).
• Finally press a single chocolate egg on top of each cake. Press firmly so that the egg stays in place. The mini simnel cakes are now ready to serve. Enjoy!

Prep Time: 40 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Yield: 9 small cakes