Sewing, stitching, baking, cooking, gardening, shopping and general homemaking.

Friday 2 April 2010

Good Friday

I didn't know that Simnel Cake was originally a cake that young girls made for their mothers on Mother's Day, which here in the UK is the fourth Sunday in Lent.  I've never made one of these cakes, one reason being that marzipan used to be very expensive and I only used it for Christmas cake.  However, now that baking ingredients seem to be more affordable, I can be a lot more adventurous in my baking.  My new cake recipe book has a recipe for something similar to a Simnel cake so DH decided he would have a go at it.  When we bake one of us is the baker and the other is the assistant, this way we don't get too tired by the end of a baking session and it becomes an enjoyable experience (we are not as fit as we used to be).  The baker does all the mixing and the assistant does the weighing and reading out the recipe. 
This is the cake DH came up with
It tastes as delicious as it looks
It has cherries and a layer of marzipan in it - I bet you would like a piece!!!  The recipe book tells you how many calories for each slice and this one is 407 calories per slice.  There is a chocolate cake recipe that has 703 calories per slice, that one should be interesting!

One of my hobbies is dolls house miniatures.  The problem I have with this is that the houses take up so much room and one of them has been relegated to the garden shed along with most of my miniature making stash.  I often feel guilty that I don't do anything with my miniature supplies and have been thinking of a way to use them that doesn't take up so much room.  One idea was to make scenes that would fit into a shadow box.  I didn't want to spend any more money on this hobby and wondered if I could find an idea for making my own shadow boxes.  As usual, a search of the internet gave me just what I needed and I found a great tutorial.  I'm part way through making an adaptation of the box shown in the video and feel very enthusiastic about it.  That's what I'll be doing today, I was hoping to get out into the garden but the weather is so horrible, I'm glad I've always got my hobbies to keep me occupied.

5 comments:

Gillie said...

Put the kettle on, Ann! I'm on my way. I love marzipan and it's not used here as much, in fact Chiristmas cake is a joke subject! Sorry about the weather, it's supposed to be 80 here!

Peggy said...

Hi Ann, I have heard of but never tasted Simnel cake, yours looks delicious.What a lovely way to spend some time together baking.The Dh can be justly proud of his skills the cake looks perfect!I was also not aware of the tradition behind the cake.

Anonymous said...

I wonder how well a piece or two would survive the postal trauma? I love marzipan and cherries! This looks worth every single calorie.

Melissa Price said...

Yum! Save me a piece... I'll be right over... Just kidding! Although, I would love to taste that delicious looking cake. It's nice that you and your husband like to cook together. I've laid claim to my kitchen because my hubs makes such a mess. : ) Melissa

Berit said...

I LOVE the look of those cherries! :D Yum!

That link to the small vignettes sounds very interesting; I'm on my way to give it a look now.