More Easter preparations

Today more Easter preparations- the Simnel cake or Easter cake .
It's almost a shame to be indoors , baking away, as the weather has been so glorious here.
It's the first time I have had the lilac and the bluebells in flower at the same time ! I am so enjoying this Spring!
The lilac embroidered cushions, by the way, are the ones I made in this post .
But it's very nice to have your own Easter cake and it's pretty simple- and it makes Easter so much more festive.There is no comparison to a shop-bought one !

Here are your ingredients for your
Easter cake or Simnel cake

100 gr glacee cherries350 gr dried mixed fruit
175 gr butter
175 gr sugar
250 gr flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinamon
25 gr ground almonds
3 eggs

2 packs of marzipan each 400 gr
yellow food colouring
red food colouring
3 tablespoons apricot jam.

A round cake tin, diameter about 23 centimeter

A ruffled cake " collar" ( you can buy them in cookshops).
A nicely coloured ribbon.

 How to make your cake:
Preheat the oven( 170 degrees Centigrade ) .




Cream the butter and sugar till light pale yellow.
Mix the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and ground almonds in another bowl.
Add an egg to the butter mixture, then add some of the flour mixture, then put in the next egg, then some more of the flour mixture, till you have added all the eggs and all the flour.Then add all the rest : the cherries and the dried fruit.Mix well.
Take your round cake tin and line it with baking paper.Spoon half of the dough in the caketin.
Roll out the marzipan and cut a circle of about the same diameter as your round cake tin and put this on the  dough in the tin.
Spoon the rest of the dough in the tin on top of the marzipan.The marzipan is thus in the middle- and it will be really nice when you have a slice of this cake as it will be fruit-cake- marzipan- fruitcake.
Put the tin in the oven and bake for 30 minutes, then turn the oven down to 150 degrees Centigrade, and bake the cake for another hour - to and hour and a half or so. Just check if it's done- the top needs to be firm , and I always put a knitting needle in - this should come out clean and dry.

Take the second pack of marzipan and split it in two.
Mix 1 half with a bit of yellow food colouring, and mix it through properly so it is an even soft yellow all over.
Put the apricot jam and warm it up so it becomes a bit thinner, then paint the top of the cake with the apricot jam.
Roll the pale yellow maripan into a second circle , as big as the diameter of the cake- and put this on the top of the cake.
Mix the second half of the marzipan with a bit of yellow and red food colouring, and mix it through properly so it is an even soft peachy-orange.

Make11 equally big balls by rolling little globs of marzipan between the palms of your hand, and set them around the edge of the cake as you can see in the picture here above.

If you are a really good and skilled baker and icing is not a problem for you, you can write in freehand with icing on the cake, and write " Happy Easter" or "Simnel" or some Easter greeting.
I got the icing very neat by getting a nice font from my pc, and enlarging this, then used this as an example to cut a stencel for the letters " Simnel".
I piped green icing throught the stencel and in this way got really precise letters.Just a thought!

Then you can make your cake even prettier by putting a cake collar and around the collar , a pretty ribbon- and you are done- ready for Easter !

So - happy baking! Have a lovely and relaxing time on your break...with hopefully some lovely weather, sunshine and lots of flowers..

                                                                                      

                                                              and a very happy Easter!
                                                                        ...................
                                                             Also from Maud and Millie.

   

                                                      Here they are playing and laughing.

                                                              Have a great time !!                            
                             
I am linking this to  Swing into Spring Wednesday
                              Transformations and treasures
                             Transformation Thursday
                             Time travel Thursday
                            Feathered Nest friday
                            Full plate Thursday
                            Beyond the picket fence link party
                            Inspiration Friday
                            Foodie friday
                            weekend wrapup party
                             Feature yourself friday
                             Smile with me Saturdays
                              Seasonal Sunday
                              Metamorphosis Monday
                             brag Monday
                             Making the world cuter Monday
                             Craft Catwalk
                             hello Splendor link party
                             show off your cottage Monday
                             Take a look Tuesday
                             Tutorial Tuesday
                             Table top Tuesday
                             Get your craft on
                               Tuesdays treasures
                              Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays
                             wow us Wednesdays
                             wassup Wednesdays
                             show and tell wednesday
                            transformation Thursday
                            Thrifty Thursday
                            tablescape Thursday 
                            time travel Thursday