Easy recipe Easter cake

Fancy making a traditional Easter cake? Here is an easy to follow recipe. Some of the ingredients are optional and you can be inventive to personalise your recipe. The recipe makes a rich, spicy fruit cake topped with perfect home-made almond paste

Ingredients:
12 ounce of plain flour
1/2 level teaspoon of salt
3/4 level teaspoon of mixed spice and ground cinnamon
9 ounce butter, or margarine
9 ounce of soft brown sugar
5 large eggs, lightly beaten
Grated rind of one lemon
6 ounces of stoned raisins
4 ounces each of sultanas and currants
3 ounces each of glace cherries and candied peel
2 ounces of almonds, blanched and chopped
Roughly 4 tablespoons of milk
2 tablespoons of apricot jam, sieved
10 ounces almond paste

Preparation time

30 minutes

Cooking time

2 hours and 45 minutes

Oven settings

350 degrees F Gas mark 4
335 degrees F Gas mark 3

How to make

• Grease and line, with baking paper, a nine inch cake tin.
• Sieve flour, salt, spice and cinnamon into a bowl.
• Halve cherries and chop peel.
• Cream butter, or margarine, and sugar until pale and creamy
• Add lemon rind to the mixture.
• Gradually beat the eggs into the mixture
• Add 3 tablespoons of flour towards end of mixing to prevent the mixture curdling
• Fold in the remaining flour, fruit and enough milk to make mixture into a soft dropping consistency
• Spoon half of the mixture into the baking tin spreading evenly

Making the Almond paste

• Combine 10 ounces of ground almonds with 10 ounces of caster sugar
• Mix into a stiff paste, with juice of half a lemon and one large egg
• Roll one half of the almond paste into a 9 inch circle. Place on top of the cake mixture in the baking tin.
• Wrap the remainder of almond paste in foil for use later. Spoon the remaining cake mixture in to the baking tin, hollowing the centre slightly

Baking

• Bake in a moderate oven for 30 minutes, then in a very moderate oven for 21/4 hours.
• Cool the cake in the baking tin for around 15 minutes. Then turn the cake out onto a wire tray, removing the baking paper.
• Brush the centre and top edge of the cake with the apricot jam. Roll the remainder of the almond paste into strips and plait.
• Place the plaited paste around the top edge of the cake and in the centre (onto the apricot jam)
• Decorate the top centre of the cake with coloured Easter eggs to suit.

Overall
This recipe makes a tasty cake. You can adjust spices and dried fruits to taste or for your convenience. The cooking time is rather long but the cake is easy to make and well worth the effort.