Easter chocolate simnel cake

Easter Chocolate Simnel cake (serves at least 10)

Ingredients

• 225g (1 cup) unsalted butter softened
• 225g (1 cup) light muscovado sugar
• 4 eggs
• 225g (1 cup) plain white gluten free flour
• 125g (2/3 cup) glace cherries, chopped
• 350g (3 1/2 cups) luxury dried mixed fruit
• 75g (1 cup) slivered almonds
• 50g (1/2 cup) Hotel Chocolat organic cocoa powder
• 100g Hotel Chocolat dark chocolate drops

Cooking instructions

1. Preheat oven to 140 deg C (300 deg F)
2. Line and grease 20cm cake tin
3. Roll out 125g marzipan to 5mm thick and cut into a circle the same size as the cake tin, leave to one side
4. Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until the mixture turns a pale colour
5. Gradually beat in eggs
6. Stir in flour, glace cherries, dried fruit, almonds, cocoa powder and chocolate chips
7. Divide half the mixture into the cake tin
8. Place circle of marzipan on top
9. Spoon rest of cake mix on top
10. Bake for 1 hour 45 minutes
11. Place cake on a wire rack to cool

To decorate (one cake)

What you will need

• 500g white marzipan
• 500g white ready to roll icing
• Green vanilla buttercream
• Icing sugar
• 3 tsp apricot jam
• 6 white fondant bunnies
• 4 blue fondant butterflies
• 4 pink fondant butterflies
• 24 large fondant flowers
• 16 small fondant flowers

Equipment

• Cake stand or board
• Rolling pin
• Cake smoother (optional)
• Sieve
• Icing bag or bottle fitted with Grass icing tube no.233

Decorating instructions

1. Place cake on stand upside down so top is completely flat
2. Knead marzipan into a ball
3. Dust icing sugar onto a hard clean surface and roll out marzipan to 5mm thick
4. Melt the apricot jam
5. Brush cake with apricot jam
6. Lift up marzipan using rolling pin
7. Place on cake and smooth out so entire cake is covered in marzipan
8. Cut off any excess, leave to dry for 24 hours
9. Knead roll-on icing into a ball
10. Dust icing sugar onto a hard clean surface and roll out roll-on icing to 5mm thick
11. Lift up icing using rolling pin
12. Place on cake and smooth out so entire cake is covered in icing (I use a cake smoother to give it a polish and professional finish)
13. Cut off any excess icing from base of cake
14. Spoon green buttercream into a piping bag or bottle fitted with no.233 nozzle
15. Pipe buttercream grass in a circle on top of the cake
16. Push fondant bunnies into grass so they form a circle, push one small fondant flower between bunnies, alternating the colour of the flowers
17. Pipe buttercream grass in a circle on the outside edge of the top of the cake. Push one pink butterfly and three flowers into grass, repeat with blue butterfly and so on, until you have used all the butterflies
18. Pipe buttercream grass around base of cake
19. Push three large flowers and two small flowers into grass, repeat until there are no gaps

Have a sweet day!