I first heard about Simnel Cake from Mary Berry a couple years ago while watching her Easter special with Paul Hollywood on The Great British Baking Show Masterclass. It’s a fruitcake, which may make my fellow Americans uncomfortable, but I believe fruitcake is as good as the fruit you put in it, and most fruitcake around here has terrible fruit in it, so who can blame you for not liking it?

In mine I used dried apricots, golden raisins, and cherries. I think that’s a pretty good selection. The great thing is, you get to choose what you like. The other important step to making a fruitcake actually taste good is to reconstitute the fruit by soaking it in juice, wine, or brandy, or a combination of all three. Adding the fruit in while it’s all dry and chewy makes for an unpleasant experience, if you ask me.

My favorite part of this cake are all the marzipan elements. There’s a river of melted marzipan baked right into the center of it. And the eleven little balls of marzipan on the top are supposed to represent the Twelve Apostles, minus the double-crossing Judas.

I have been working on readying all the different elements in this cake for the better part of the last week, so be ready for a lot of instructions. But if you want to skip some steps by using store-bought marzipan (from specialty shops), and not fussing with making your own glacéed cherries or candied lemon peel, you’ll find that the recipe really isn’t that difficult.

For the cake in the photograph I used a 7-inch cake pan, but since most of you probably don’t have a cake pan that size, the recipe is for either an 8-inch cake or a 9-inch cake. After I filled the 7-inch pan, I obviously had some leftover batter. I just poured it into a loaf pan and baked it for about half the time of the main cake.

For those of you who are adventurous, go ahead and experiment with the recipe. Since this is my first time making this, I am sure I will try different adaptations before I settle on the ultimate version, and if anything changes, you will find the changes here.

Simnel Cake

1 cup golden raisins

1 cup chopped dried apricots

1 cup dried tart cherries or glacéed cherries (recipe follows)

1 cup candied lemon peel (recipe follows)

6-8 tablespoons Calvados or some other kind of fruit brandy, white wine, or light colored fruit juice

Marzipan (recipe follows)

12 tablespoons butter

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon fresh ginger

Zest of 1 lemon

2 tablespoons honey

1/2 cup almond flour

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon mixed spice (cinnamon, ginger, cloves)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/3 cup milk

2-3 tablespoons Apricot jam

Egg white, lightly beaten

In a small mixing bowl, combine dried fruit, cherries, candied peel, and calvados. Set aside for at least overnight. If using a non-alcoholic liquid, keep in refrigerator.

Butter and completely line a cake tin (8” or 9” in diameter) with parchment paper (nonstick baking paper).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small mixing bowl, combine flour, almond flour, spice, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar until combined. Add in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add in ginger, lemon zest, and honey.

With the mixer on low, add in about a third of the dry ingredient. Follow with half of the milk. Repeat, and end with the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined. With a spatula or wooden spoon, stir in dried fruit mixture.

Spoon mixture into the prepared cake tin until it is half full. Roll out 1/3 of the marzipan onto a lightly sugared board, into a round the size of the cake pan. Press down into the cake batter. Spoon the remaining batter into the pan. (If you’re using an 8-inch pan or smaller, you may want to place some of the extra batter into a smaller tin, such as a muffin tin or a loaf pan. Bake alongside of the other cake, but for half the time, or less).

Lightly cover the batter with another round of parchment paper (this will prevent it from burning and help keep it from drying out.)

Place in oven, and reduce the heat to 275 degrees F. Bake for 2 hours, or until a toothpick placed in the center comes out clean. Let cool for 20 minutes in the pan, remove and cool completely. Brush the top of the cake with apricot jam. Roll out 1/3 of the marzipan into a round the size of the cake tin. Press onto the jam on top of the cake. Crimp the edges.

Preheat the broiler to low (or grill, as it’s called in the UK). Roll remaining marzipan into 11 small spheres (easiest way to do this evenly is to make 12, and eat the extra one). Use egg white to adhere the balls to the top of the cake in a circular pattern. Brush the center of the cake and the tops of the spheres with more egg white. Keeping a watchful eye, place under the broiler for 2-4 minutes, until the edges of the marzipan and tops of the spheres are golden brown. (I would close the door to the oven for 15 seconds at a time, and then turn the cake a quarter turn, until it was the color I was happy with.)

Marzipan

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

2 1/2 cups almond flour (ground blanched almonds)

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

3 tablespoons of liquid egg whites (or 1 egg)

1 teaspoon orange blossom water

1/4 teaspoon pure almond extract

1 teaspoon calvados (or fruit brandy)

1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until it comes together. Knead a few times on a sugared board (powdered sugar), and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Glacéed Tart Cherries

1 15 ounce can of tart cherries

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

Strain the juice from the cherries into a bowl. In a small saucepan, stir 1/4 cup of the juice with the sugar, and save the remaining juice for another use or discard. Place the saucepan over medium heat and stir until the sugar is mostly dissolved. Add in the cherries, and simmer over a low heat, stirring often, until the mixture reaches 220 degrees. Drain and places cherries on a parchment lined baking sheet to cool.

Candied Lemon Peel

Yellow part of peel from 5 lemons

1/4 cup lemon juice

3/4 cup sugar

Use a vegetable peeler to remove the zest of the five lemons in long strips. Save the lemons in an airtight container and refrigerate for another use. Place the zest in a small saucepan, cover with water, bring to a boil, and boil for five minutes. Strain. Repeat the process up to 4 times.

Cut the softened peel into 1/8-inch strips, then cut the strips into squares. Mix lemon juice and sugar in a small saucepan, and place over medium heat. Stir until the sugar is mostly dissolved. Add in the lemon peel, and simmer over a low heat, stirring often, until the mixture reaches 220 degrees. Drain and places lemon peel on a parchment lined baking sheet to cool. Sprinkle with sugar, if desired.