Easter Simnel Cake

[Carolann]

This is a great favourite of mine at Easter and traditional too.






For the cake175g butter or margarine

• 175g soft brown sugar

• 3 eggs

• 175g plain flour

• Pinch salt

• Half a teaspoon ground mixed spice

• 350g mixed raisins, currants and sultanas

• 55g chopped mixed peel

• Half a lemon, grated zest only

• 1-2 tablespoons apricot jam

• 1 egg for glazing

• For the almond paste

• 250g caster sugar

• 250gground almonds

• 2 eggs

• 1 teaspoon almond essence

• • Start by making the almond paste.  Add the sugar and ground in a bowl, then slowly add a little beaten egg until you achieve a fairly soft consistency.  Add the almond essence and knead until the paste is smooth and pliable.  This should take around 1 minute.
    Roll out a third of the paste to make a circle roughly  6 inches in diameter, put to one side then save the rest for the topping.
    Preheat oven to 140C then grease and line a 6 inch cake tin.
    To make the cake, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy.
    Beat in the eggs and mix well.  Gently sift in the flour, salt and mixed spice a little at a time.
    Add the mixed dried fruit, peel and grated lemon zest.  Mix well.
    Put half the mixture in to your cake tin, smooth down with a spatula then lower your circle of almond paste on top.  Add the rest of the cake mix and smooth down the top.
    Bake for 1 hour 45 minutes.  Use a cake tester in the middle of the cake to see if it’s baked. If the tester comes out clean then your cake is ready.  Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack
    Once the cake has cooled, brush the top with apricot jam.
    Divide the remaining almond paste in half and roll out a circle to cover the case with one half and use the other half to make 11 small balls.
    Place the circle of almond on top of the cake, crimping the edges to decorate.  Then place the balls around the edge.  Brush the top of the cake lightly with a little beaten egg
    Preheat your oven to high, place the cake on a baking tray and grill for 1 minute or until the top of the marzipan begins to brown.  You can also use a cook’s blow torch if you have one.

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[Jherrith]

FYI .... 28 grams to an ounce

175 grams = 6.25 oz

350 grams = 12.5 oz

55 grams = 2 oz

250 grams = 9 oz.

[Jherrith]

Apparently:

The sultana is a "white" (pale green), oval seedless grape


The essence vs extract seems to be a bit more complicated.

Almond Essence and almond extract are both flavoring ingredients. Both are mainly used in a number or recipes to give them the flavoring and/or aroma of the original ingredient.

Dictionary.com defines an extract as a substance separated or obtained “from a mixture by pressure, distillation, treatment with solvents, or the like.” While, as essence is “a substance obtained from a plant, drug, or the like, by distillation, infusion, etc., and containing its characteristic properties in concentrated form.”

While referring to food ingredients, an extract is made by combining oil from the ingredient with an alcohol. This creates a stable, longer-lasting flavoring agent. Alcohol is used as a binding agent for preserving the flavor’s strength. Ethyl alcohol and vodka are commonly used to make extracts, while, alcohols such as gin, brandy and rum may also be used.

An essence, on the other hand, can have two distinct meanings. It can either be an imitation extract or it can be a highly concentrated form of pure extract; the label on the bottle should specify which. Concentrated essences are essentially very strong extracts that can be twice to even four times as strong as normal extracts.