Tag Archives: Easter

Simnel Cake

Simple Cake

One of the oldest Christian festivals, Easter marks Christ’s resurrection from the dead.

Simnel cake has at some point been adopted as a traditional Easter cake.

The 11 marzipan balls on the
top represent the apostles,
minus the treacherous Judas.

Simnel Cake

  • Servings: 11 slices
  • Difficulty: medium
  • Print

Calories 722 per portion
Fat 30g (13.2g sat) per portion
Suitable for vegetarians

Ingredients

  • Butter 250g (9oz), softened
  • Light muscovado sugar 250g (9oz)
  • Eggs 4
  • Plain flour 300g (11oz)
  • Baking powder 1 tsp
  • Ground mixed spice 2 tsp
  • Ground almonds 50g (2oz)
  • Luxury dried mixed fruit 500g (1lb 2oz)
  • Lemon 1, finely grated zest and 2 tbsp juice
  • White marzipan 500g (1lb 2oz)
  • Apricot glaze or sieved apricot jam 2 tbsp

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F/Gas 2 and line a 20cm (8in) cake tin with baking parchment.
    Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding a spoonful of the flour along with each egg. Sift in the remaining flour, baking powder and spice and fold the almonds, dried fruit and lemon zest and juice into the mixture. Spoon half into the cake tin and smooth the surface level.
  2. Roll out one third of the marzipan until it’s a circle, just smaller than the cake tin, and lay it on top of the mixture in the tin. Spoon the remaining mixture over the top and level the surface.
  3. Bake the cake in the centre of the oven for 2–2¼ hours, or until a skewer comes out clean after being inserted into the cake. Cover with a sheet of baking parchment if it starts to brown. When cooked, remove the cake from the oven and leave to cool.
  4. Remove the cake from the tin and peel away the lining paper. Spread the apricot glaze or jam over the top. Roll out half of the remaining marzipan to fit the top of the cake. Place it on the cake and smooth down, taking care not to trap any air pockets underneath. Pinch around the edges.
  5. Divide the remaining marzipan into 11 pieces and roll each into a ball. Brush a little apricot glaze or jam onto the base of each and evenly space around the top of the cake. Place under a hot grill to brown the marzipan lightly. Remove from the grill and leave to cool before serving.

Cook’s tips
The cake will keep in an airtight container for up to a week.
If you have a choice of marzipan, choose white marzipan, which has a more natural flavour than golden marzipan.

Recipe of the Week; Easter Egg Cake Pops

 

Easter Egg Cake Pops

Easter Egg Cake Pops

  • Servings: 10
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Calories 291 per portion
Fat 15g (6.5g sat) per portion
Suitable for vegetarians

Ingredients

  • Plain Madeira cake 285g pack
  • Chocolate spread 5 tbsp
  • White chocolate 225g (8oz), broken into pieces
  • Lollipop sticks 10 x 15cm (6in) Neon sugar sprinkles

Instructions

  1. Trim off brown edges and crumble cake into a bowl. Add half the chocolate spread and mix well with your hands. Add remaining spread a tablespoon at a time until you have a mixture that can be squished and rolled into 10 tightly packed 30g (1oz) egg shapes.
  2. Place on a tray lined with non-stick baking paper and chill for 1 hour.
  3. Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, stirring often.
  4. Dip end of each stick into chocolate and insert into eggs. Place in a cake pop stand or glass and leave to set. Dip cake pop into chocolate and slowly rotate until evenly covered. Hold over a plate and sprinkle with decorations. Leave to set as before. Repeat with other pops.
  5. If giving as an Easter gift, pop into a cellophane bag and tie with a pretty coloured ribbon.

 

 

#easterrecipe

 

Banish the Blues Part 2

Marvellous Easter Makes Made Easy

.

Marvellous Easter Makes Made Easy

(and other tongue-twisters)

With the wind still whistling around our ears, rain pelting the windows and the clocks waiting another few weeks before they go forward, it’s easy to get despondent.

Lift the mood by creating something
lovely for Easter, and maybe give
one of your creations as a gift.

I have been recipe testing for the next diary recently and to save my waistline from ‘just one more taste’ I have been giving out little parcels of food to neighbours and to teachers/acquaintances at the school gate. People have been genuinely thrilled to receive something unexpected (and yummy of course!) and it really brightens my (and hopefully their) day.

So…..here are three ideas for easy Easter treats to share:

 

Easter Egg Cake Pops

Easter Egg Cake Pops

  • Servings: 10
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Calories 291 per portion
Fat 15g (6.5g sat) per portion
Suitable for vegetarians

Ingredients

  • Plain Madeira cake 285g pack
  • Chocolate spread 5 tbsp
  • White chocolate 225g (8oz), broken into pieces
  • Lollipop sticks 10 x 15cm (6in) Neon sugar sprinkles

Instructions

  1. Trim off brown edges and crumble cake into a bowl. Add half the chocolate spread and mix well with your hands. Add remaining spread a tablespoon at a time until you have a mixture that can be squished and rolled into 10 tightly packed 30g (1oz) egg shapes.
  2. Place on a tray lined with non-stick baking paper and chill for 1 hour.
  3. Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, stirring often.
  4. Dip end of each stick into chocolate and insert into eggs. Place in a cake pop stand or glass and leave to set. Dip cake pop into chocolate and slowly rotate until evenly covered. Hold over a plate and sprinkle with decorations. Leave to set as before. Repeat with other pops.
  5. If giving as an Easter gift, pop into a cellophane bag and tie with a pretty coloured ribbon.

 

Woven Easter Card

Woven Easter Card

Materials

  • Selection of narrow ribbons
  • Card with oval hole
  • Scissors
  • Sellotape

Instructions

  1. Choose a selection of ribbons in similar colours. Cut into strips slightly longer than the length of the oval.
  2. On the reverse of the oval attached a piece of ribbon (at the top left only) with a piece of tape. It should hang vertically down the length of the edge of the oval. Attach a second ribbon next to it to create a ribbon ‘fringe’ behind the oval.
  3. Cut more ribbon slightly wider than the width of the oval.
  4. Attach a piece of ribbon at the top of the oval but this time horizontally. Weave the ribbon in and out of the other ribbons to create a woven effect. Attach to the back with tape. Repeat until the oval is filled with the woven ribbon pattern.

 

Mini Egg Rocky Road

Mini Egg Rocky Road

Ingredients

  • Butter 110g (4oz)
  • Milk chocolate 110g (4oz), chopped
  • Digestive biscuits 110g (4oz)
  • Chocolate mini eggs 110g (4oz)
  • Marshmallows 110g (4oz), chopped
  • Dried cranberries 25g (1oz)

Instructions

  1. Line an 18cm (7in) square baking tin with cling film.
  2. Place butter and chocolate in a large bowl and microwave for about 1 minute, until melted, checking frequently.
  3. Put biscuits into a strong polythene bag and bash with a rolling pin until broken up. Stir into chocolate with mini eggs, marshmallows and cranberries.
  4. Press into tin and refrigerate for at least an hour until firm. Remove from tin and cut into 16 squares.

 

#easterrecipe

 

Simnel cake

One of the oldest Christian festivals, Easter marks Christ’s resurrection from the dead. Simnel cake has at some point been adopted as a traditional Easter cake.

The 11 marzipan balls on the top represent the apostles, minus the treacherous Judas.

Preparation time – 30 minutes
Cooking time – 2¼ hours
Calories per slice – 722 Kcal
Fat per slice – 30g
of which saturated – 13.2g
Makes – 11 slices
Suitable for vegetarians

Butter 250g (9oz), softened
Light muscovado sugar 250g (9oz)
Eggs 4
Plain flour 300g (11oz)
Baking powder 1 tsp
Ground mixed spice 2 tsp
Ground almonds 50g (2oz)
Luxury dried mixed fruit 500g (1lb 2oz)
Lemon 1, finely grated zest and 2 tbsp juice
White marzipan 500g (1lb 2oz)
Apricot glaze or sieved apricot jam 2 tbsp

1 Preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F/Gas 2 and line a 20cm (8in) cake tin with baking parchment.

2 Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding a spoonful of the flour along with each egg. Sift in the remaining flour, baking powder and spice and fold the almonds, dried fruit and lemon zest and juice into the mixture. Spoon half into the cake tin and smooth the surface level.

3 Roll out one third of the marzipan until it’s a circle, just smaller than the cake tin, and lay it on top of the mixture in the tin. Spoon the remaining mixture over the top and level the surface.

4 Bake the cake in the centre of the oven for 2–2¼ hours, or until a skewer comes out clean after being inserted into the cake. Cover with a sheet of baking parchment if it starts to brown. When cooked, remove the cake from the oven and leave to cool.

5 Remove the cake from the tin and peel away the lining paper. Spread the apricot glaze or jam over the top. Roll out half of the remaining marzipan to fit the top of the cake. Place it on the cake and smooth down, taking care not to trap any air pockets underneath. Pinch around the edges.

6 Divide the remaining marzipan into 11 pieces and roll each into a ball. Brush a little apricot glaze or jam onto the base of each and evenly space around the top of the cake. Place under a hot grill to brown the marzipan lightly. Remove from the grill and leave to cool before serving.

Cook’s tips
• The cake will keep in an airtight container for up to a week.
• If you have a choice of marzipan, choose white marzipan, which has a more natural flavour than golden marzipan.

Recipe taken from Around Britain Dairy Cookbook available for a short period at just £2.99!

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Have a Happy Easter Break

Holidays take on a whole new dimension when you have children.

Many of us grown ups look forward to having a rest. But children don’t rest, they get bored.

If you had asked me ten years ago what my plans were for the four day weekend, they would probably be to have one day cleaning up my home, the next visiting my relatives, then to have a day or two of chocolate eggs for breakfast, followed by a pub lunch and some afternoon drinking.

Not now. I find myself instead mixing up flour and water to stick strips of coloured paper to yogurt pots with to make mini-nests, into which I can put cute mini chocolate bunnies and chocolate eggs.

Simnel Cake
Old habits die hard, so I don’t just put these together for the children! We do all have to grow up sometimes though, and my nod to that is also to make a Simnel Cake, a traditional Easter cake with marzipan (my favourite!) for which there is a good easy to follow recipe in the ‘Around Britain Dairy Cookbook‘ if you should have it.

Easter Biscuits
However, no doubt when my children get wind of my planned afternoon of baking the cake shall be replaced with the much easier and child-friendly Easter Biscuits from the ‘Year Round Dairy Cookbook‘. Is that a problem? I shouldn’t think so… even the Grandparents like to indulge in a hand-made biscuit!

Have a Happy Easter

Karen
Dairy Diary Team

P.s. The wonderful weather continues, so this is the perfect time for gardening. Fancy winning a copy of Seasonal Garden Ideas?

Win a copy of Seasonal Garden ideasTo enter simply complete the form on our website www.dairydiary.co.uk/competitions.html and don’t forget to “Like’ the page for an extra chance to win!

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Happy Easter Holidays

I hope you have all had a lovely, relaxing Easter and not eaten too many of those tempting Easter treats!

An extra day off work today – woohoo. The perfect opportunity to show off your gardening talent (or not – it’s so easy my cat could do it!) with the following Pretty in Pink gorgeous spring basket. It takes less than an hour to do and has instant impact.

I love hyacinths and they are just starting to bloom now, so it’s definitely one for today’s to-do list, along with a visit to a nearby National Trust property – for some fun family activities. Visit the National Trust website for details of events near to you.

And for lots more easy garden projects take a look at Seasonal Garden Ideas . Enjoy!

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