A SIMNEL CAKE FOR EASTER

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30396, 21 March 1964, Page 2

A SIMNEL CAKE FOR EASTER

By

ELIZABETH]

Since the fifteenth century, custom has set on the Easter table the special Simnel Cake —a fruit cake baked with ..an almond paste layer in the centre and a topping of toasted almond paste.

Decorate the top with a ring .of toasted Coconut .or shredded toasted almonds, and place a yellow, chicken on top. Buy some coloured Easter birds’ eggs and'.set them round the chicken for a cake the children will feel iq very special. . -Ingredients: The paste? 8 oz ground almonds ‘ 8 oz brown sugar. 1 egg. Almond Essence. The cake: 4ozbutter. 4 oz sugar. 2 eggs.:' , • 4 oz floor. - i teaspoon baking powder. . i teaspoon salt. . 1 teaspoon spice. ”'

10 oz mixed cake fruit. 1 egg white. Method: .'Make almond paste by working together brown sugar, ground almonds, egg and a few drops of almond essence. Roll out and cut two neat circles to fit a six-inch round cake tin. Roll the scraps thinner and cut .out into, very small circles.

Cream butter and sugar and beat in eggs. Sift in flour, . spice, baking powder and salt and add cake fruitLine the tin - .with butter papers neatly and spoon in half. the cake mixture. Lay bn a circle of paste then the remaining cake.' Bake at 325 degrees, 2| to tliree hours, Remove, the cake from the oven, brush it . over ', with' white of egg and-lay. on the second round of paste. Form the small 'circles into roses a.nd arrange, rouiid the edge. Heat oven up to 400 degrees and place the cake in for about 10 minutes; just sufficiently to brown the edges a. little. Cool in the. tin and pull Out carefully by the papers without spoiling the topping. Arrange a nest of toasted slivers of almond or coconut on the centre and add eggs, chicken or both.