Tom's (Mum's) Simnel Cake

This Simnel cake recipe is from my Mum's recipe book, looked like it was cut out of a magazine decades ago.

6oz softened butter
6oz soft brown sugar
5oz white self-raising flour
5oz wholemeal self-raising flour
3 medium eggs
A little milk
8oz dried fruit
2oz candied peel
2oz chopped glace cherries
Zest of half a lemon or orange and 2 tblspns of the juice
½ tsp mixed spice
½ tsp Cinnamon
1lb - 1½lb marzipan (depending on how elaborate your planned decorations are)

Beat together butter & sugar.  Sift flour and spices, beat eggs.  Mix both into the beaten butter a little at a time.  Add the dried fruit, peel, glace cherries, zest and juice, and enough milk to make a dropping consistency.

Grease and line an 8" round tin.  Put in half the mixture and level off.  Roll out about 8oz of the marzipan to cover, then add the rest of the mixture - so you end up with a layer of marzipan sandwiched in the middle of the cake.  Make the top of the cake slightly concave so that it rises flat.

Bake at ~170°C for ~2½ hours.  If your oven is vicious try tying some greaseproof paper over the top of the cake to stop it drying out too much.  Leave to cool for a while in the tin before turning out or the marzipan will still be liquidy and ooze out of the edge of the cake.

Once cooled roll out another ~8oz of marzipan to cover the top of the cake.  Glue it in place with a little jam spread on the cake first (apricot jam is traditional).  Roll out some more marzipan and cut into birds or other eastery shapes and stick around the side of the cake with more jam.  Now you can go crazy with whatever decoration you want on the top of the cake; 12 eggs (representing the disciples) is traditional.

Enjoy!