Simnel cake with macaroons

MAKES 1 cake

Simnel cake is traditionally served at Easter and is a light fruit cake topped with marzipan icing and 11 marzipan balls to represent the 11 apostles. Well, I’m not a fan of marzipan, so I’ve made little Italian-style macaroons for the apostles.

225g butter

225g caster sugar

Finely grated zest of 2 lemons Finely grated zest of 2 oranges

4 large eggs

225g flour

100g ground almonds

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 ½ tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

450g mixed dried fruit of your choice – sultanas, raisins, currants, apricots, etc

11 almond macaroons

(see left)

2 tbsp honey, warmed

Icing sugar, to dust

1 Preheat oven to 160°C.

Grease and line a 20cm springform cake tin.

2 In a large bowl, cream the butter, sugar, lemon and orange zest until light and fluffy.

3 Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition.

4 Gently fold in the flour, ground almonds, cinnamon, baking powder and vanilla extract. Stir in the dried fruit and mix until well combined.

5 Scrape the batter into the prepared tin and smooth the top of the cake.

6 Bake for 2 hours, checking that a skewer comes out clean when tested. Allow to cool in the tin before turning out.

7 Brush each macaroon with warm honey and arrange evenly on the cake.

8 Dust with icing sugar before serving.