Retro cake recipe for 4 - 8 people, takes only 20 mins; recipe has dried fruit, dried apricot, glace cherry, orange, butter, light muscovado sugar, large egg, self-raising flour, ground almond, mixed spice, ground cinnamon, nutmeg, marzipan, butter, light muscovado sugar, plain flour, flaked almond, golden syrup, icing sugar and orange juice.
Fruity simnel squares
Course: Retro cake
Servings
4 - 8
servings
Prep time
40 mins
Ingredients
- Butter: 200g butter, softened, plus extra for the tin
- Orange: zest 2 oranges, juice 1 orange (use the second in the topping)
- Nutmeg: 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
- Plain Flour: 100g plain flour
- Ground Cinnamon: 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- Self Raising Flour: 200g self-raising flour
- Ground Almond: 50g ground almond
- Large Egg: 4 large eggs
- Dried Apricot: 100g dried apricot, chopped
- Flaked Almond: 100g flaked almond
- Mixed Spice: 2 tsp mixed spice
- Glace Cherry: 85g glace cherry, chopped
- Orange Juice: 2-3 tsp orange juice
- Icing Sugar: 85g icing sugar, sieved
- Light Muscovado Sugar: 200g light muscovado sugar
- Golden Syrup: 3 tbsp golden syrup
- Dried Fruit: 250g mixed dried fruit
- Marzipan: 500g marzipan, 200g/7oz cut into 2cm chunks, the rest for the topping
Directions
- Soak all the dried fruit in the orange juice for 2 hrs, or overnight.
- Butter and line a 20 x 30cm tin with baking parchment. Heat oven to 160C/ 140C fan/gas 3. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric whisk until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time; mix well between each addition.
- Sift the flour into the bowl and mix in the ground almonds and spices. Add the marzipan chunks, zest and dried fruit with any remaining juice, and give everything a good stir to combine.
- Tip the cake mix into the prepared tin, level the surface, and bake for 45 mins - the cake may still be a little gooey in the centre at this point. Remove from the oven and increase the heat to 200C/ 180C fan/gas 6.
- Make the topping. Rub the butter, sugar and flour together with your fingers to a crumbly breadcrumb texture. Grate in 200g reserved marzipan, add the flaked almonds and golden syrup. Mix everything with a fork, making sure it stays crumbly and doesn't clump. Sprinkle over the cake and return to the oven for 12-15 mins. Meanwhile, divide the rest of the marzipan into 11 and roll into balls.
- Remove the cake from the oven once cooked through, arrange the marzipan balls on top and allow to cool in the tin. Mix the icing sugar with enough orange juice to give a runny icing, drizzle it all over the cake, then let it set a little before slicing it.
