Simnel Cake

Simnel cake is a British fruit cake that is served at Easter.

Traditionally it should have 11 marzipan balls placed around the rim to symbolise the apostles (Judas excluded)



As I'm not religious, but do love cake, I replaced the apostles with Pac-Man chasing ghosts. I then realised I could give it the pun-tacular title of a Pâques-Man cake (Pâques is French for Easter) and giggled for longer than was necessary at my own joke.

The cake is tasty and light, the marzipan layer in the middle really lifts it above mere fruitcake.

Ingredients

175g butter
175g soft brown sugar
3 eggs, beaten
175g plain flour
pinch salt
½ tsp ground mixed spice
400g mixed fruit (raisins, currants, sultanas and mixed peel)
2 tbsp apricot jam
1 packet of yellow marzipan
1 free-range egg, beaten for glazing

Preheat oven to 140C. Grease and line a 18cm cake tin.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy.

Gradually beat in the eggs until well incorporated and then sift in the flour, salt and mixed spice a little at a time.

Finally, add the mixed dried fruit and stir into the mixture.

Put half the mixture into the prepared cake tin.

Take a third of your marzipan and roll it out into a circle 18cm in diameter. Lay this circle on top of the cake batter in the cake tin.

Add the rest of the cake mixture and smooth the top.

Bake in the preheated oven for 1¾ hours or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes away cleanly.

Remove from the oven and set aside to cool on a wire rack.

Brush the top of the cooled cake with the apricot jam.

Divide the remainder of the marzipan in half; roll out another circle to cover the top of the cake with one half and use the remaining marzipan to decorate your cake, either with balls or Paque-man.

Place the circle of marzipan on the jam glaze and set the decorations round the edge. Brush the cake topping with a little beaten egg.

Preheat the grill to high. Place the cake onto a baking tray and grill until the top of the marzipan begins to toast.

You can also use a blow-torch to toast the marzipan if you are lucky enough to have one!

Chocolate Cake with Olive Oil and Sea Salt

This cake is amazing. Moist, chocolatey, with a hint of the olive oil and sea salt that just brings it to another level and makes it a very indulgent, adult cake.

Ingredients

200g dark chocolate (70% cocoa)
175g unsalted butter
4 eggs
150g caster sugar
60g plain flour
1½ tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

For the ganache -

400ml double cream
200g dark chocolate (70% cocoa)

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Grease and line a 19 cm round springform cake tin with parchment paper.

Melt the chocolate and butter together in saucepan on a low heat, stirring constantly until completely melted.

In a large bowl, beat the sugar and eggs until pale and fluffy. Add in the flour, a tablespoonful at a time, along with the baking powder and sea salt.

Fold in the melted chocolate and butter mixture and the olive oil until no streaks of flour are visible.

Bake cake for 30-40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes away cleanly. Cool on a wire rack before removing from the cake tin.

While the cake is cooking you can prepare the ganache.

Place the cream in a saucepan and heat it just to a simmer, don't let the cream boil. Then, remove from heat and add the chocolate but don't stir it until the chocolate has melted. It will help the chocolate melt if you break it up into pieces first.

Place in the fridge for an hour or so to cool and thicken.

When the cake and the ganache have cooled, cut the cake horizontally so you have two equal discs.

Put half of the ganache on the bottom half, spreading carefully with a palette knife to make it even, and place the other half cake on top.

Put the rest of the ganache on top of the cake and spread evenly down the cake’s top and sides.

Keep the cake in the fridge, taking it out about an hour before you want to serve it.

Lemon Drizzle Cake

I love lemon in cakes, I think it's just the right combination of fresh and sweet. This is my favourite lemon cake recipe as it contains lemon curd, making it really moist and tender.

You can add in poppy seeds to add a bit of variety if you like.

Ingredients

140g self raising flour
112g butter, softened
112g granulated sugar
3 tbsp lemon curd
2 eggs
1 small lemon, juice and zest

Icing

2 tbsp icing sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice

Preheat oven to 175C.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until light.

Add in the eggs, lemon zest and juice and lemon curd. Beat to incorporate.

Lastly, add in the flour and mix until there are no visable lumps in the batter.

Pour cake mix into a buttered loaf tin (400g/1 lb size).

Bake for 30 mins, or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes away cleanly.

Allow to cool, then make up the icing and drizzle artistically on top.

Toasted Coconut Cake

This cake is a dream. It actually came about as a bit of a mistake as I wanted to make a plain sponge, but realised I had no normal milk so added a small can of coconut milk instead.

It's light, fragrant and not too overpoweringly coconutty. If you wanted a stronger flavour, you could swap the vanilla essence for coconut essence but personally I prefer a more natural coconut taste.

Ingredients

2 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup cake flour
1 cup dessicated coconut, toasted
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup coconut milk
3 tbsp butter, melted and cooled



Preheat oven to 175C.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs and sugar together. Add in the flour, toasted coconut, baking powder, salt and vanilla and mix well.

Finally, add the coconut milk and butter to the mix and stir until you have a thick batter.

Pour the cake batter into a buttered 8 x 8 square cake pan and bake for 20 minutes or until light brown.

Cool in the pan and cut into squares.

Banana Bread

This has always been one of my favourite cakes which is ironic as I am not a fan of fresh bananas!

It's a great way to use up over-ripe bananas and it is a very adaptable recipe, you can add choc chips, nuts, a little espresso or even lime juice to jazz it up.

I'm not sure why this is called banana bread rather than banana cake - I think it might be that it is commonly baked in a loaf tin rather than a cake pan and also that the use of bicarb of soda as a raising agent would place it into the quick-bread category along with soda bread.

Ingredients

4 over-ripe bananas
375g plain flour
75g butter, melted
150g brown sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp bicarb of soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 175C.

Mash up the bananas in a large mixing bowl with a fork.

Add the butter, sugar, egg and vanilla and mix well with a spatula or wooden spoon.

Add the bicarb, salt and cinnamon and mix again.

Lastly, sift in the flour and stir until just combined.

Pour mixture into a buttered 400g loaf tin and bake for 50-60 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the middle comes away cleanly.

Leave to cool slightly in the tin before turning out and cooling on a wire rack.

Quatre Quarts cake

This cake is beautiful in its simplicity. It has only 4 ingredients (hence the name), and it can be whipped up in no time. Proportion is the key with this cake so no substituting or chucking in whatever is in the cupboard.

It's my favourite "Oh no, I have guests coming and they will expect cake" cake. That happens more often than you would think, due to my obsessive need to have something tasty waiting for anyone who makes the effort to visit me!

For this recipe I will assume that your eggs weigh 60g in-shell. Weigh them before you begin and use whatever weight they are for the other 3 ingredients.

Ingredients

3 large eggs
180g plain flour
180g sugar
180g salted butter (if using unsalted, add 1/2 tsp salt to the flour)

Preheat oven to 180C

Melt the butter and leave to cool slightly.

Add sugar to a large mixing bowl, add the butter and beat well until creamy.

Separate the egg whites and yolks and put the egg whites to one side. Add the egg yolks to the sugar-butter mixture and beat well. This improves the fluffiness of your cake as there is no other raising agent used so it's worth the time.

Sift the flour into the batter, stirring as you go.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they are stiff.

Incorporate the egg whites with the batter, adding one spoonful of egg white at a time to the batter and folding with a gentle motion. Again, it's important to keep as much air in the batter as you can.

Pour the batter into a buttered 1lb loaf tin. Bake for around 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes away clean.

Leave to cool on a wire rack, or if you're anything like us you'll eat it while it's still warm and keep going back until you've accidentally eaten the whole thing!

Earl Grey Tea Bread

This cake (an adaption of a Delia recipe) has a firm but light texture and the flavour of the tea really comes through without being overpowering.

It's also really easy to make and adapt to what you have in the cupboard to use. I've made it with walnuts, pecans, all mixed fruit, sultanas only, and it's been perfect every time.

It also keeps for about a week as well as it's got such a good amount of fruit in it. All in all, it's one of my favourite cakes to have in the house!


Ingredients

340g currants, sultanas and raisins
55g mixed peel
120g demerara sugar
137ml Earl Grey tea
55g pecan nuts
1 egg
1 tbsp milk
225g self-raising flour

Preheat oven to 170C

Dissolve the sugar in the hot tea and add to a bowl containing the dried fruit and mixed peel. Leave for as long as you can, overnight if possible, but I've made it after 1 hr and it was fine!

Place the pecans on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for 5 minutes. Keep a close eye on them so they don't burn. After 5 mins, remove and chop roughly.

Beat the egg and milk together and add to the bowl containing the fruit and tea mixture and stir together. Add the flour and pecans and mix until well combined.

Pour cake mix into a buttered, silicon loaf tin, place onto a baking sheet and bake in the oven for 70 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes away clean.

Turn out and onto a wire rack immediately.

Chocolate Beetroot Cake

This cake was inspired by a dream I had where Stephen Fry made a chocolate and beetroot cake for me. I had never heard of that combination before, but a little digging came up with this recipe. Sadly, Stephen Fry didn't serve it to me when I made it!

It's not for the fainthearted as the uncooked beetroot has quite a strong, earthy taste but it makes a change from plain chocolate cake.

Ingredients

250g butter, softened
325g dark muscavado sugar
4 medium eggs
250g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp cocoa
300g fresh beetroot, finely shredded
115g 70% cocoa chocolate, grated
1/2 tsp vanilla essence


Preheat oven to 180C.

In a bowl, mix together the softened butter and muscovado sugar until light and fluffy.

Beat the eggs and add them to the butter mixture gradually, mixing well.

Sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder into the cake batter and stir well.

Add the grated beetroot to the cake mix together with the grated chocolate. Stir well to combine and add the vanilla essence.

Transfer the mixture to a buttered 23cm round cake tin and bake for 50-65 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes away cleanly.

This is quite a moist cake so depending on your oven, it may take a bit longer - don't worry, just cover the top of the cake loosely with foil to prevent it from burning.

Stem Ginger Cake

This is the recipe that I used for the wedding cake for Joe's manager.

It's rich, moist and is actually a lot better after being kept in an airtight container for a couple of days. It's great served plain as a teatime cake but even better iced with Maple Syrup Buttercream for a more indulgent treat!

Ingredients

270g self-raising flour
115g butter
115g dark muscavado sugar
115g treacle
115g golden syrup
250ml full-fat milk
85g preserved stem ginger, grated
1 egg
1 tsp bicarb of soda
1 tbsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice

Preheat the oven to 160C.

Mix the flour, bicarb and all the spices in a large mixing bowl. Add the butter and rub it into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Heat the sugars, treacle, syrup and milk in a medium saucepan, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Turn up the heat and bring the mixture to just below boiling point.

Add the shredded stem ginger to the flour mixture, then pour in the liquid mixture, beating well to avoid any lumps.

Add the egg and stir in to combine. The mixture will be the consisitency of a thick pancake batter.

Pour this into a buttered and lined 18cm round cake tin and bake for 50 minutes-1 hour, or until a skewer pushed into the centre of the cake comes out fairly clean.

Leave to cool completely in tin before turning cake out.

Carrot Cake

This carrot cake (originally from Baking Bites) is amazing. It's easy to make, moist, nicely spiced and just everything you could ever hope for in a carrot cake.

I should know, as carrot cake has always been one of my favourites. It also has enough substance and flavour that you don't need icing but I will publish a recipe for simple cream cheese icing that works really well with this cake.

The recipe is quite flexible if you are missing a couple of ingredients - I've made it with different fruit juice depending on what I've got in the fridge and it's always been tasty.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups demerara sugar
2 large eggs
1/4 cup butter, melted and left to cool
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp mixed spice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 - 3 medium carrots, grated


Preheat the oven to 175C.

In a large mixing bowl, beat together the sugar and eggs with a handwhisk until smooth and the mixture has changed to a lighter colour.

Stir in the melted and cooled butter, orange juice, vanilla, spices and salt. When it's all combined, sift in the flour and bicarbonate of soda. Stir gently until you have a smooth batter with no visible flour.

Stir in the grated carrot and make sure that it's well combined with the rest of the mixture.
Scrape the cake mix into a greased standard loaf tin (but this cake can be baked in a square baking pan or even muffin cases)1

Bake in the oven for 40 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes away clean. Be careful when opening the oven to check on the cake as it can sink in the middle!

Remove from the tin and cool.


1. If you are using this recipe for muffins, then you will only need to bake them for 25-30 minutes.