Simnel Cake

I cant take credit for this reciepe as it is the Baking Guru's Mary Berry's! But it has gone down a hit in my house!

Heres is what you'll need to make it!

175g/6oz light muscavado sugar

175g/6oz butter, softened

175g/6oz self raising flour

3 large eggs

25g/1oz ground almonds

2 tablespoons milk

100g/4oz sultanas

100g/4oz cherries, quartered, washed, and dried

100g/4oz dried apricots, snipped into small pieces

50g/2oz stem ginger, finely chopped

1 teaspoon mixed spice

2 teaspoons ground ginger

150g of Marzipan

Preheat oven 160C/320F/Gas 3.

Grease and line the base and sides of an 20cm/8in deep, round cake tin with baking parchment. (Bottom and sides! as the muscavado sugar will burn when cooking.)

Measure all the cake ingredients into a large mixing bowl and beat well until thoroughly blended. Place half the mixture into the prepared tin and level the surface.

Its now time to role out the Marzipan, i found that my side plate fit into my tin so it was the right size template to use, that way all i had to do was cut round the plate. To role out the Marzipan all i did was sandwich it between 2 pieces of cling film so i didnt have to faff with icing sugar ect. Place on top of cake mixture and put the rest of the mix on top of the Marzipan.

Bake for about one and three-quarter to two hours or until golden brown and firm in the middle. If toward the end of the cooking time the cake is getting too brown, loosely cover with a piece of foil. Allow the cake to cool in the tin before turning onto a cooling rack.

(You will find because of the Marzipan the middle takes a long time to cook and if u put a skewer in it will never come out clean, and you'll end up over cooking it like mine, the sides became a bit dry, so trust yourself if you press the middle and its firm take it out.)