Mothering Sunday

Mothering Sunday is usually celebrated on the fourth Sunday in Lent. The biblical story of feeding of the five thousand, Jesus broke five bread loaves and two small fishes which multiplied. This narrative is usually read at church to understand that the rules of fasting for Lent are relaxed but only for this day.  Mother’s day was once recognised as being a day given to domestic servants to relive them from their chores and to spend time with their mothers. The girls traditionally brought a Simnel cake with them when they visited home on mothering Sunday. Today we celebrate Mothering Sunday by giving cards, flowers or presents to our mothers or grandmothers.

Simnel cake is traditionally associated with mothering Sunday and Easter-time.The cake is made up of dried fruit with two layers of almond paste.  It is then decorated on top with marzipan and eleven marzipan icing balls to represent the 11 disciples that was faithful to Jesus.  The recipe for the Simnel Cake is a basic cake recipe but with quite a bit of marzipan for the decoration. However, I am not a big fan of too much marzipan but I will have an attempt to baking the cake for my mum. She absolutely loves marzipan and of course it is meant to be Mothering Sunday

Before making the cake you would need a large round cake tin and some grease lining as it makes the baking easier. The oven also needs to be preheated to around 150c or gas mark 2. The ingredients for Simnel Cake is a selection of dried fruit (sultanas, currants, cherries), 2oz of candied peel, 4 Large eggs, 8oz of soft butter, 8oz of self-raising flour, 8oz of light muscovado sugar, Zest grated from 2 lemons, 2 teaspoons of mixed spice.  The ingredients for the cake decoration and filling are 1lb of marzipan and 2 tablespoons of apricot jam.

First you need to cut the cherries into quarters and then rinse them in a sieve and drain well. Once that is done, place the cherries in a large mixing bowl with the other dried fruit. Add the butter, sugar, eggs, flour, lemon zest and mixed spice to the bowl and mix together thoroughly to form a cake mixture. Once it has all been beaten together pour all the mixture into the prepared cake tin. Using one-third of the marzipan, roll it out into a circle of the size of the tine and then place it on the top of the cake mixture. The remaining of the cake mixture can be spooned on top of the marzipan and even out the mixture on the surface. It can now be place ready to bake in the prepared oven for about 2 hours and thirty minutes whilst checking that the cake has risen and turned brown. Once it has baked it has to be decorated but it first needs to cool down. Once, it has cooled brush the top with warm apricot jam and roll out the rest of the marzipan. Place it on top of the cake and crimp the edges to decorate. Mark a criss-cross pattern on the marzipan with a sharp knife. Form the remaining marzipan into 11 balls. Brush the marzipan with beaten egg and arrange the marzipan balls around the edge of the cake.

This is a thoughtful gift to share with your mother and enjoyed with the whole family for  tea-time.