Tag Archives: Simnel Cake

CarolCooks2 in my kitchen…Simnel Cake…

Good Morning and welcome…as you know I love to cook mainly savoury dishes and the occasional dessert but a baker I am not although in a past life I have made a wedding cake and numerous novelty birthday cakes for my kids and even took a course in how to ice cakes at one point and make these lovely flooded decorations…pretty ladies and flowers…but that is all in the past…

I am however very pleased with my Simnel cake…Pretty basic with decoration but a traditional Simnel cake is just that…it has 11 marzipan balls that depict the disciples…a layer of marzipan through the centre of the cake and a marzipan top which is fluted around the edges and then the marzipan is toasted…A bit of ribbon and a bow and that’s that…

Firstly I made the marzipan...which is so very easy I am asking why I have not made it before…

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups of ground Almonds
  • 2 cups of powdered sugar(icing sugar)
  • 1 tsp almond essence
  • 1 tsp Rosewater
  • 1-3 tsp water

Depending on the humidity in your kitchen and the weather you might need to add less or more water to get the desired consistency… add the water a tsp at a time the marzipan will be crumbly it just needs to be kneaded to make it smooth.

It comes together quite easily I was surprised…  be sparing with your water as you don’t want sticky marzipan.

I made mine in my food processor and with it running added the almond essence, rosewater and water to the ground almonds and icing sugar…as it comes together add water a tsp at a time then knead the mix until smooth it will stiffen up a little …keep in the fridge until required…

The Cake…

Ingredients:

  • 100 gm glace cherries( I used apricots)
  • 500 gm mixed dried fruit
  • 175 gm unsalted butter
  • 175 gm caster sugar
  • The zest of a lime(lemon)
  • 225 gm plain flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp ground ginger
  • 25 gm ground almonds
  • 3 large eggs(room temp)
  • 2 tbsp milk
  • 400 gm of marzipan

Let’s Bake:

Oven 165C/325F …  8″ round tin greased and floured…I also wrapped my tin in some brown paper around the outside…my oven runs hot and has a bottom element as do all Thai ovens…so often I double tin…my dream is to have a proper oven…but I improvise and most of the time it works…

Cream the butter and the sugar until light in colour, add the lime zest..lemon is fine it’s just I use limes as they are more readily available here.

In another bowl add the flour, ground almonds, spices and baking powder stir to combine.

To the creamed fat and sugar add 1 egg plus 2 tbsp of the flour mixture, repeat until the eggs are used then add the remainder of the flour with the milk and stir to combine.

Fold in the fruit mixing well to combine.

Roll out an 8-inch circle of the marzipan.

Put half the cake mix into the prepared tin and then add the marzipan circle then top with the remainder of the cake mixture.

Put the cake into a preheated oven and cook for 1 and a half hours or until the cake is cooked. Allow to cool in the tin for 5 mins and then remove to a cooling rack.

Allow the cake to cool before decorating…I decorated mine the next day…As I was adding the balls I made another batch of marzipan.

To decorate the cake I rolled out a round of marzipan for the top of the cake I warmed some marmalade but apricot jam would suffice to brush the top of the cake so the marzipan would stay put I then just pressed my fingers to make pretty flutes added the balls and for the first time weighed my marzipan to ensure my balls were all the same size placed them around the edges and then toasted the top of the cake with a blow torch…I confess my son got that job…

I then added a pretty bow but if you can get Easter chicks or some tiny eggs they would look lovely in the centre.

Enjoy!

I hope you enjoy the recipe for this classic Simnel Cake whose history dates back to medieval times…Topped with 11 balls and sometimes a larger ball in the middle to depict Christ it is a lighter cake from the Christmas cake and doesn’t contain alcohol…Originally made for Mothering Sunday which fell in the middle of Lent it was a welcome respite from the 40 days of fasting…as the years have passed it is now generally seen as an Easter Cake a very nice Easter cake if you like marzipan…

Thank you once again for reading this post I hope you all have a great week  and don’t forget I do love to chat if you want to leave a comment xx

Carol Taylor’s Green Kitchen…April 2022 …Kitchen Hacks, How does your Garden Grow, Recipes,Hot Cross Buns, and Mackerel Pate.

Welcome to my Green Kitchen where my aim is to cook food that is chemical-free, in season and grown either by myself or purchased locally and in season…

Produce which has just come into its season has far more taste than produce which is forced and grown out of its natural season …I also think it is the anticipation and the taste of the first of the season’s crops…those first root vegetables…are sublime! or those first strawberries there is nothing quite like the first strawberry of the season!

This month’s recipe “Hot Cross Buns …

Yes, that time of the year is nearly upon us when we celebrate Easter with Hot Cross Buns on Good Friday is the 15th of April this year followed by Easter Eggs on Easter Sunday and Simnel Cake on Easter Monday.

Traditional Hot Cross Buns

I have been seeing lots of alternative recipes for Hot Cross Buns...some sound delicious some sound as if they are made just because the baker can…

Most of the recipes from my childhood I don’t want to change… it’s tradition lest we forget…x…

So without further ado here is your recipe for…Traditional Hot Cross Buns...Warm from the oven there is nought better than a Hot Cross Bun buttered with lovely grass-fed butter…

Ingredients:

For the dough

  • 450g strong white flour, plus extra for dusting
  • 2 x 7g sachets of easy-blend yeast
  • 50g caster sugar …I use natural golden sugar.
  • 150ml warm milk
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 50g  butter, melted, plus extra for greasing
  • oil, for greasing
  • 1 tsp Himalayan Salt…ordinary salt is ok.

The spices and dried fruit

  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • ½ tsp mixed spice
  • ¼ tsp grated nutmeg
  • 100g currants
  • Optional: Orange or lemon zest.

For  the pastry crosses:

  • 4 tbsp plain flour
  • 2 tbsp granulated sugar.

Let’s Bake!

Put the flour, yeast, castor sugar and 1 tsp salt into a large mixing bowl with the spices and dried fruit and mix well. If you want to add a little lemon or orange zest it can be added now. Make a well in the centre and pour in the warm milk, 50ml warm water, the beaten egg and the melted butter. Mix everything together to form a dough – start with a wooden spoon and finish with your hands. If the dough is too dry, add a little more warm water; if it’s too wet, add more flour.

Knead in the bowl or on a floured surface until the dough becomes smooth and springy. Transfer to a clean, lightly greased bowl and cover loosely with a clean, damp tea towel. Leave in a warm place to rise until roughly doubled in size – this will take about 1 hr depending on how warm the room is.

Tip the risen dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for a few secs, then divide into 12 even portions – I roll my dough into a long sausage shape, then quarter and divide each quarter into 3 pieces. Shape each portion into a smooth round and place them on a baking sheet greased with butter, leaving some room between each bun for it to rise.

Use a small, sharp knife to score a cross on the top of each bun, then cover with the damp tea towel again and leave in a warm place to prove for 20 mins until almost doubled in size again. Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas

When the buns are ready to bake, mix the plain flour with just enough water to give you a thick paste. Spoon into a piping bag (or into a plastic food bag and snip the corner off) and pipe a white cross into the crosses you cut earlier. Bake for 12-15 mins until the buns are golden and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. While still warm, melt the granulated sugar with 1 tbsp water in a small pan, then brush over the buns.

Tip: I put my mix for the cross in one of those plastic refill sauce bottles as I find I get all sorts of shapes and sizes of the cross if I use a piping bag/greaseproof. clumsy klutz that I am..haha.

Everyone who knows me knows that I hate sneaky, lying manufacturers who play with words to suit them and deceive us… if the regulations were tougher and penalties higher we wouldn’t have to read and decipher every damn label(BUT) we do or I do…

What does the Natural label actually say?… We constantly see “Natural” or “All Natural” on packets of food it certainly needles me and apparently the regulators…maybe they need to do some re-regulating then…This Podcast explores “Who decides what Natural Means? ”

How does your garden grow ?…

As I am now completely in charge of the garden… my son is away for work… it’s keeping me busy he has left me a long list of when to water, feed, what to check for(bugs) etc etc…I haven’t yet killed his pride and joy(Habanero) chillies they are fruiting for the 3rd time this year so it looks like I am going to have to make more chilli sauce very soon…the long pepper is also fruiting really well so I will once they are all dried be able to check out some recipes …my favourite is the Chinese Kale it keeps on giving and is a beautiful vegetable we only have a few plants but the more you pick the more it grows and is easy to grow…you just pick it when the flowers just start to open…

It is one of my favourite greens…Chinese Kale has a high nutritional value since it is a rich source of antioxidants and anticarcinogenic compounds, including vitamin C, glucosinolates and phenolic compounds …

There are both yellow and white flowering cultivars ours is the white flowering kale. It is a vigorous, fast-growing species able to withstand both frost and high temperatures. The flower stems are harvested at an early stage while the flowers are still in bud. It is usually cooked by stir-frying although I like mine just lightly steamed also…What do you grow in your garden or pots?

The war by Russia against Ukraine is terrible it seems as if Russia can’t win then they will just demolish and flattened everything… But what will be the other far-reaching effects of this war?

What is happening to our breadbasket…

Ukraine is a major wheat exporter and has recently emerged as a corn powerhouse, too, supplying China and its booming meat industry with nearly a third of its feed corn imports.

What does it mean when a war of conquest descends upon one of the globe’s great breadbaskets in the 21st century? ….Click here to find out why we should be worried…

A kitchen hack or three…You will love these…

And they are all green...Did you know you could make a wood stain from coffee grounds and steel wool…neither did I…

Finally, just a little mackerel pate that we love…

Smoked Mackerel Pate…

  • 240 gm smoked mackerel with the skin removed.
  • The juice and zest of one lime.
  • 1 tbsp of capers, drained
  • 150 gm cream cheese.
  • Half a bunch of dill or parsley.
  • 2 tbsp creamed horseradish.
  • Black Pepper

Let’s Cook!

Whizz all the ingredients apart from the lime zest in your food processor, taste and season.

Put in a suitable bowl and sprinkle with some chopped parsley or dill, the lime zest and black pepper…

NB: Cooks notes as they were mithering me to make this pate I just chucked everything in including the lime zest and blitzed it all not what I would normally do but today I did…I used all the parsley so grabbed a couple of lime leaves for the image…But I got complaints so guessing it was to their taste…

Serve with toast or crackers…and enjoy!

That’s all for my Green Kitchen today thank you for joining me…I look forward to your comments…x

 

Welcome to Friday Food Reviews where I will be covering a different food or product each week and looking at… what are they?  where do they grow, what can we substitute them for in a recipe, are they safe to eat, how to store them, how to use them, cook them, anything connected to that food. or product..all the why’s and the wherefores…it will, of course, be mainly my own opinion or a known fact…good or bad…there may even be a tried and tested recipe…or three…

This week it’s…the foods we hate…

This list is by no means exhaustive and is based on comments I have seen on my site or others so please feel free to add another and why…

Most of these I like/love and don’t understand why some don’t BUT it wouldn’t do for us all to be alike it would be most boring…I also think that what we didn’t like as a child as our tastebuds mature and develop our tastes change…

Beets…

I love beets pickled, warm from the oven, made into beetroot chutney or paired with orange in a smoothie…I love the earthy smell and taste of beets but some don’t…Here’s why…it’s not the soil that gives beets their earthy smell that some would liken to “dirt”… it’s the geosmin…Geosmin is an organic compound produced by the microbes in soil it is this which gives off the smell of earth after a rainstorm…I love that smell ..Human noses are very sensitive to geosmin and while I love it many don’t and turn their noses up at the smell.

Bologna…

This is one of the foods I would not let pass my lips and indeed it would not find its way into my shopping basket either…it is not the fact it is made from “parts of the animal’s body” which we may or may not normally eat but the fact it is also highly processed…

Cilantro…

Or coriander as it is also known as…I love it many do not and liken the taste to soap…It’s all in the genes!

Mushrooms…

I love shrooms and we are lucky that we have many different types of mushrooms to choose from…others for some reason do not like mushrooms…It is not like cilantro where it is in the genes or beets where your nose is sensitive to Geosmin its just a personal dislike…

Liver…

Cooked properly liver is not only healthy and full of nutrients but it is delicious…made into a pate with toast or crackers, liver and bacon with onions is a dish my mother served up every week. My mother used to use either pig’s liver or lambs’ liver and she always used to soak it in milk…soaking it in milk removes much of the gamey/bitter taste…I prefer to use chicken livers and I either cook them like my mother cooked liver with bacon and onions or I do a spicy liver with lime leaves and red curry paste with green beans which is delicious…

Apparently liver is one of Britain’s most hated foods…Do you like Liver?

Black Liquorice…

I love liquorice…my hubby likes Liquorice allsorts but doesn’t like the plain liquorice ones so I get to eat those…Because of the glycyrrhizin in liquorice, it should be eaten in moderation as it can lead to potentially serious health problems…Why do some people hate it..its in the genes just like Cilantro…

I used to love the liquorice sticks we used to get as a child..does anyone else remember these they were like little sticks of wood and also the tiny black liquorice imps.

Pickles…

In my kitchen, anything gets pickled fruit or vegetable we all love pickles…my favourite at the moment is red cabbage sauerkraut it is delicious…For some the phallic shape, their sour smell puts them of pickles plus the fact that some people can’t stand the crunch of a crisp pickled onion or wally as they are known in southern England, large gherkins pickled in vinegar are served as an accompaniment to fish and chips, and are sold from big jars on the counter at a fish and chip shop, along with pickled onions. In the Cockney dialect of London, this type of gherkin is called a “wally”…

Pineapple on Pizza…

I am not a great Pizza Eater but I do love the occasional slice and I also like pineapple on my Pizza…I have often seen debates about this and it appears that some do not think pineapple has a place on pizza…Which camp are you in?

Tomatoes…

Tomatoes I love them any which way they come raw or cooked my hubby has never ever liked tomatoes until a few years ago when he decided he would try Spaghetti Bolognese and ever since then he has eaten Spag bol or pizza anything with cooked tomatoes in he still doesn’t eat raw tomatoes which stems from childhood and lasted for a good 30 years of our marriage and now among other things he will eat tomato-based sauces…

Marzipan…

It’s that time of year when I can make a Simnel Cake which is an Easter cake topped with toasted marzipan…Again there is division in our household I love marzipan and hubby doesn’t and yet he eats almonds and it is apparently the almond smell that turns many people off marzipan…At Christmas, it is a tradition to make a fruit cake with marzipan and icing…Stollen is another popular cake with marzipan in the centre as are the lovely little marzipan fruits…Marzipan fruits are very popular on the continent as are almond/marzipan biscuits, especially in Italy.

Olives…

Olives are an acquired taste you either love them or hate them…as a child, I didn’t like them at all but as my taste buds matured I found a love for olives… Olives are quite high on the list of the most hated foods…on the continent, Olives are served before or in most meals it wouldn’t be a meal without Olives…

Blue Cheese…

Blue Cheese also divides people some love it some do not…a Connoisseur of blue cheeses will tell you that a developed palate is needed to appreciate the nuances of a delicious, matured blue cheese…with a glass of good Port, there is no better ending to a meal…

To develop a palate for blue cheese it is better to start with a milder Danish Blue or Gorgonzola then advance to a medium Stilton before partaking in the pleasures of Roquefort…

That’s all for today there are of course many more foods that are divisive some are just down to individual taste or maybe the way they were cooked others are down to our genes or a natural substance in the food which our noses take a dislike to…

As always I look forward to your comments and look forward to hearing what food you really dislike and why…x

CarolCooks2 weekly roundup…28th March-3rd April 2021…#Recipes, Whimsy, Music and Lifestyle Changes

Recipes, Whimsy, Music and Lifestyle Changes…

Welcome to this week’s edition of my weekly roundup of posts…Especially for you just in case you missed a few posts during this last week…we are now well into April…Time is marching on…we had a humdinger of a storm last night was that thunder loud…some heavy metal going on up there …they were certainly kicking up a storm…

A sad start to the week as we lost one of our own…Sue Vincent who will and is already sorely missed… our condolences go out to her sons and grandchildren, Stewart and Ani who must be wondering where her 2 legs has gone…however Sue left her words… such a great legacy for us all… we will never forget and will keep her memory alive in our hearts and souls…R.I.P Sue Vincent…

Just in case you missed any or love to catch up like I do… snuggle deep be kind to yourselves get comfy in your favourite corner with your favourite drink tea/coffee or hot chocolate although depending on where in the world you live it could be a glass of wine…Cheers!

Meatless Monday’s…

This week I made a recipe given to me by Darlene Foster and it was lovely it got the thumbs up all around I will definitely be making it again…Meatless Mondays is getting there in this house although so far I am struggling for this weeks post my heart has been elsewhere…

 

Meatless Mondays…Macaroni and Chickpea Bake…

Simnel Cake…I was so pleased with my first attempt at Simnel Cake and it is delicious…easy to make and if you love marzipan like me it’s a winner…

CarolCooks2 in my kitchen…Simnel Cake…

The Environmental A-Z the letter C…

The Environmental A-Z…the letter C

CarolCooks2…Week 7…Homemade BBQ Sauce…there is nothing like homemade sauces as you can tweak them to suit your taste …

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These two sauces are family favourites and well and truly tried and tested …Enjoy!

CarolCooks2…Week 7…in my Kitchen…made from scratch…Homemade BBQ Sauce…

Fruity Friday…

In my garden my seeds and seedlings…an update.

My little seedlings which I  planted in eggshells are going great getting bigger each day…a couple weeks and I can plant them out…I think using eggshells to grow seeds in is a wonderful idea. The calcium from eggshells is also welcome in garden soil, where it moderates soil acidity while providing nutrients for plants.

The shells also contain nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium which are most vital for healthy growth, calcium is also essential for building healthy “bones” aka the cell walls of a plant…win-win all round and no waste…

Fruity Friday..how does my garden grow…Chocolate Habaneros…

Saturday Snippets…

Of course, there was chocolate and more chocolate also a fascinating video on Sea Otters unlike seals and whales sea otters have no blubber to keep them warm which means they follow an intensive daily grooming ritual to keep their fur in tip-top condition and keep them warm…A fascinating look at Sea Otters and how vital they are to the eco system…

Saturday Snippets…3rd April 2021…

Finally…last but not least…Smorgasbord Blog Magazine weekly roundup…

I think after this week we all need to be kind to ourselves so please keep snuggled up and head over to Sally’s and have a read…Lots of new books and reviews something for everyone and some funnies to put a smile on your face…xxx

Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – Weekly Round Up 28th March – April 3rd 2021 – Absent Friends, 1960s Music, Communication,

Me, I have just put the bread in the oven and Lily wants to make chocolate Brownies which means that’s my afternoon sorted…

Well, that’s it for today…Thank you so much for dropping by…I hope you have enjoyed the read…see you next week …Love Carol xx