The top layer is capped by a circle of "eggs" made of the same paste, and is lightly browned under a grill. Simnel cakes have been known since at least medieval times. Simnel Cake History . Simnel cakes themselves seem to be disappearing from our Easter tables altogether and are getting more and more difficult to find in British bakeries. 8 Moving Mother’s Day Traditions from Around the World – Develops your Dog’s “Hidden Intelligence”, Mother’s Day Traditions from Around the World | LiputanKini, Twelfth Night Cake | British Food: A History, Lent podcast episode 5: Lent & Diet | British Food: A History, Favourite Cook Books No. ", "Mother's Day: From medieval brawls to greeting cards and flowers", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Simnel_cake&oldid=996159036, Articles incorporating a citation from the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia with Wikisource reference, Articles incorporating text from the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia with Wikisource reference, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from May 2019, Articles with unsourced statements from March 2019, Articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases from March 2019, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 24 December 2020, at 21:43. Simnel Cake is an Easter time fruit cake, made with lemon, dried fruits and peel, treacle and marzipan. Share on pinterest. 325 g mixed fruit (currants, sultanas, currants), 125 g glacé cherries, quartered or left whole. Simnel cake is a light fruit cake with two layers of almond paste or marzipan, one in the middle and one on top [1], that is toasted, and eaten during the Easter period in the United Kingdom, Ireland and some other countries. Change ). A Simnel cake is a type of fruit cake that contains plenty of marzipan and is eaten at Easter, although it used to be specifically associated with Mothering Sunday. Introduction. Traditionally made to mark Mothering Sunday, this cake is also known as an Easter Cake; Simnel cake has a fascinating cultural heritage with roots that stretch back to the Romans and Athenians. How to make simnel cake - recipe. Young girls, working in service, and living in their workplace, were allowed to visit their mothers on this special day. While the popularity of simnel cake waned throughout the twentieth century, it has recently enjoyed a marked resurgence, which has been largely attributed to public endorsements by a number of prominent bakers. As with so many classic recipes, there are many conflicting stories of how the simnel cake first came about! I did use ready made almond paste and used 3 X 7oz tubes as we all love it. A wonderul spiced & fruited cake which heralds the advent of Spring. Simnel Cake: A History It is an old custom in Shropshire and Herefordshire, and especially at Shrewsbury, to make during Lent and Easter, and also at Christmas, a sort of rich and expensive cakes, which are called Simnel Cakes. It is distinguished by two layers of almond paste or marzipan, one in the middle and one on top.The top layer is capped by a circle of "eggs" made of the same paste, and is lightly browned under a grill. Make a well in the centre and pour in the egg. Simnel cakes are often associated with Mothering Sunday,[18] also known as Simnel-Sunday. Simnel cake is a light fruit cake with two layers of almond paste or marzipan, one in the middle and one on top, that is toasted, and traditionally eaten at Easter but will last a … The Simnel Cake according to many, is an Easter Cake, baked during the Easter period. It turns out that an interesting mythology has formed around this ancient fruity fare. Simnel cakes have been known since at least medieval times. [9][10] An early reference to decorating with marzipan balls appears in May Byron's Pot-Luck Cookery[11][12] but with no mention of the modern story, and her version may well be derived from earlier styles, which were sometimes crenelated. Cover with marzipan and decorate with 12 marzipan balls at the end. Using a hand mixer, beat together until smooth. … Begin by greasing and lining an 8-inch cake tin and preheating your oven to 150°C. The Simnel Cake is a symbolic Easter cake decorated with eleven marzipan balls around the cake to represent the 11 disciples. Lay the marzipan in the tin and then spoon and scrape the remainder of the cake batter on top of that. Like most British food eaten during winter and early spring, the Simnel cake contains lots of dried fruit, but it is much lighter than boozy Christmas cake and contains a layer or marzipan both on top and within, and is decorated with eleven marzipan balls, each symbolising Jesus’s disciples (minus the treacherous Judas of course). Add the rest of the cake ingredients to the soaked fruit and stir until well combined. The name simnel probably comes from the ancient Roman word simila, meaning fine flour. The book what I has finished and the book what I has started. It was originally made for the fourth Sunday in Lent,[1] also known as Laetare Sunday, the Refreshment Sunday of Lent (when the 40-day fast would be relaxed), Mothering Sunday, the Sunday of the Five Loaves,[2] or Simnel Sunday – named after the cake. Brush those with egg too and glaze the top using a chef’s flame torch (or a very hot grill). I used to make one for my Mum every year, when I lived in England! ). Below is the recipe I use – I can’t claim it as my own, but I don’t know where I got it from, so if you recognise it let me know, you know I always like to credit my sources! Simnel cake has been eaten since medieval times as both a rich, sweet treat and a symbolic ritual. One wishes to boil it, one to bake it and, after beating each other with various household implements, they compromise on one which uses both cooking techniques. Simnel cake is a light fruitcake formerly eaten during the pre-Easter period in the United Kingdom, Ireland and some other countries but has become a traditional cake for Easter Sunday. One wishes to boil it, one to bake it and, after beating each other with various household implements, they compromise on one which uses both cooking techniques. I added some almond essence to the batter as well as a little cinnamon allspice ginger and nutmeg. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Email to a friend. ( Log Out /  Simnel Cake, in these times, is associated with Easter but this was not always the case. To trace the origin of Simnel cake, you need to go right back to mediaeval times where it began life as a yeast-leavened bread, which may or may not have been enriched. Take a third of your marzipan and roll it out into a circle the same size as the tin, trimming away any untidy bits. ].The illustration is from the 1869, Chambers Book of Days which says :“It is an old custom in Shropshire and Herefordshire, and especially at Shrewsbury, to make during Lent and Easter, and also at Christmas, a sort of rich and expensive cakes, which are called Simnel Cakes. The delicious spiced fruit cake has a layer of marzipan baked inside it as well as being decorated with toasted marzipan. Simnel cake is a light fruitcake that is an Easter classic and is often associated with Mother's Day. This traditional Easter fruit cake is topped with home-made almond paste – with 11 balls to represent the faithful disciples, so make sure you count correctly! This doesn’t sound that much like a special bread, you may think, but what made it special is that it made out of the highest quality flour possible; simnel derives from the Latin simila – the whitest and finest of flours. Simnel Cake is fruit cake decorated with marzipan and with a layer of marzipan baked in the middle. [18] The cake later became simply an Easter cake. When ready for sale the crust is as hard as if made of wood, ...... the accompanying engraving, representing large and small cakes as now on sale in Shrewsbury. There is an anniversary in Bury, and I believe only in that place in England, called "Simnel Sunday." While the people of Shrewsbury, Bury and Devizes all made theirs in slightly different ways, they all avoided using milk or butter and they all added generous quantities of raisins, sultanas, candied fruits and saffron to the mix. Filed under Britain, cake, Easter, Festivals, food, Recipes, Uncategorized, Tagged as baking, cake, Easter, festivals & celebrations, food, history, Mothering Sunday, recipe, religion, Teatime. ( Log Out /  Mothering… It is only when you get to the tail end of the 19th century that it starts to look like something we would recognise as a cake, though surprisingly it is not until the 20th century that the familiar marzipan layers and decorative disciples appear. The history of the simnel cake. Share on twitter. History Simnel Cake. If you don’t want to make your own marzipan, you can buy some ready-made, but I do urge you to make your own, it really is worth the (really quite little) effort required. Mothering Sunday occurs on the fourth Sunday of Lent; a special day when people visited their mother church or cathedral. This is a very straight-forward cake mixture made using the all-in-one method; it is very important that you use very soft butter so that the cake batter creams quickly without developing the gluten too much. Packed with all the usual simnel cake ingredients like fruit and warming spices, the history of this cake makes it traditionally eaten in spring time usually at Easter. This classic cake was originally made by girls in service to give to their mothers on the 4th … John de Garlande felt that the word was equivalent to placenta cake,[3] a cake that was intended to please. When folk were fasting during Lent, Mothering Sunday, appearing in the middle of the fast, offered a respite from 40 days of religious austerity. Simnel cake is a light fruitcake formerly eaten during the pre-Easter period in the United Kingdom, Ireland and some other countries but has become a traditional cake for Easter Sunday. 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