Mrs Beeton’s Easter Simnel Cake

I have hesitated whether or not to add this post, but I want my blog to be open and honest about the process of baking.   And the truth is baking is difficult at times, and mistakes and “failures” are part of the process. 

So this post will explain a couple of mistakes I made in this round of my baking ventures.  

A Simnel cake is a classic English Easter cake.  The recipe I used was from “The Best of Mrs Beeton’s Cakes & Baking.”  Mrs Beeton is a very interesting Victorian author from London and I would highly recommend this wikipedia page for further info.  I have made several cakes from this recipe book and it is a valuable bible of time-tested English classics.  The cake is a kind of fruitcake with ground almonds.  It is baked with a layer of marzipan or almond paste in the middle.  It is also topped with an English tradition of a layer of marzipan/almond paste and royal icing.

I made Mrs Beeton’s Simnel cake for the first time last year and it turned out beautifully.  It is really delicious, especially if you are an almond lover as that taste comes through and gives a beautiful texture to the cake.  From last year’s cake I can also testify that although this is technically a fruitcake, it is not as heavy as a traditional fruitcake and tastes more like a cake with dried fruit in it (if that makes sense) than an alcoholic tinged version. 

So I know for a fact that Mrs Beeton’s recipe is a good one.  However, this Easter it went rather wrong, and I believe there were 2 important reasons for that.  I wanted to publish this post as the reasons in question are perfect examples of what not to do when baking and why it is always so important to follow instructions to the letter – or adapt accordingly.

Reason No 1: Sugar

I used unrefined caster sugar instead of the refined one.  I believe that this affected the taste of both the cake and the almond paste.  Unrefined caster sugar can work in some instances for certain recipes, but in this one it altered the taste too much and did not manage to bring out the sweetness required.  It also did not dissolve properly I believe for the almond paste.  This resulted in a more unrefined almond paste, both in texture and taste.

Reason No 2: The size of the cake tin

Last year I used the stated round cake tin size of 18cm / 7 inch.  As I did not have this size this year I used my own round tin that was larger: 20cm / 8 inch.  I was fooled to think that such a small difference would not be a big deal.  As I used the same baking time as the recipe stated my cake came out not burnt, but almost biscuit-like.  The taste was strange to say the least, and texture was bizarre.  I should have reduced my baking time by the very least.

So there it is: my mistakes are out in the open.  I will attempt to make this cake again in the near future.  Just need to save up some cash for the ingredients… But all in all it was a good learning experience.  I did like my decorations too!           

Ingredients used:

Cake

200 g Plain Flour

½ Tsp Baking Powder

¼ Tsp Salt

150 g Caster Sugar

150 g Unsalted Butter

100 g Glacé Cherries (halved)

150 g Currants

150 g Sultanas

100 g Seedless Raisins

50 g Cut Mixed Peel

50 g Ground Almond

Grated Rind of 1 Lemon

Almond Paste

450 g Ground Almonds

200 g Caster Sugar

200 g Icing Sugar

2 Tsp Lemon Juice

Few Drops of Almond Essence

2 Eggs (beaten)

 

I would like to point out that although delicious the Simnel cake is pricy as it uses a lot of ground almonds, almond paste (that you can easily make from scratch!) and dried fruit.  In addition, this is a time-consuming venture as the total baking time is 2.5 hours.