Easter Recipe: Simnel Cake

Photo: © childsdesign

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There are many versions of the story of how the Simnel cake originated, so it is difficult to ascertain which one is actually true, so to save confusion we'll not go into the details. What is known is that nowadays it is made for Easter and decorated with marzipan balls to represent the eleven disciples. Yes eleven not twelve, Judas is left out and if you know your Bible stories, you'll have worked out why.

Simnel cake is very much like a lighter version of Christmas cake. Dotted with juicy fruit and fragranced with a dash of cinnamon it's perfect for any celebration, but you need to like marzipan to enjoy it, there's lots of it – on the top – our favourite part, the seam of gooeyness in the centre.

There probably isn't an authentic recipe left in existence as our research found a multitude of different ones using varying quantities of fruit and even nuts, but we've put together one that appeals to our tastes.

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