Simnel Cake
From Bread, cakes, and biscuits, 1902
This cake should be kept for four months for best flavor.
Presented as published in 1902. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation below, not the original instructions.
A modern interpretation · AI-generated from the original record
Ingredients
Method
As published
This recipe was extracted from Bread, cakes, and biscuits (1902) by S. Beaty-Pownall, page 68. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.
lb. of flour, ^lb. rice flour, lib. butter gib. caster sugar. Rub these ingredients together till they begin to mould easily when pressed, then knead them into two cakes, and bake in an oven hot at first, but cooling down gradually. Simnel. — A quaint old legend accounts for the Simnel cake in this way: Simon and Nell were an old couple, whose children had left home — some married, some in service — but, according to the old custom, they were to come home for a visit on Midlent, or “ Mothering ” Sunday ; in preparation for which event the old couple had made ready sundry delicacies, amongst which was a rich cake, that was duly mixed and only required cooking. Unluckily, 108 BREAD, CAKES, AND BISCUITS. the old people had words over this; one said it must be baked, the other said it should be boiled ; and they continued arguing for some time, until one of them, which the legend sayeth not, tired of the discussion, suggested a compromise ; and so the cake was first boiled and then baked, and received the name of Sim (short for Simon) and Nell’s cake, other- wise Simnel cake. I fear I do not know if this legend may be credited ; I can only give it as the explanation given to me in my childhood, and I have seen it referred to often since then. 12oz. each of butter and of caster sugar, lib. of flour, lib. of eggs (weigh these), 4oz. candied peel, 12oz. currants, and a few drops of essence of lemon. Beat the butter to a cream with the sugar, then work the eggs in,, one or two at a time, and when these are all used add the other ingredients quickly and lightly. Prepare some almond icing thus : Rub together 12oz. caster sugar and 6oz. ground almonds, and work this to a stiff paste with two small eggs or one large one. Roll this paste out, dusting it and the board with a little rice flour ; butter and paper a cake hoop, and put into it a layer of the cake mixture and then one of the almond icing, then a second layer of the cake, and bake in a moderate oven. A lib. cake will take fifty minutes, a 21b. one seventy-five minutes. Or : beat 6oz. each of butter and caster sugar to a cream, work in four eggs, then mix in 12oz. sifted flour, mixed with half a teaspoonful baking powder, one teaspoonful mixed spice, half a teaspoonful of cinnamon, half a teaspoonful ground ginger, |lb. washed and dried currants, -Jib. each of sultanas and raisins stoned and chopped, and 4oz. shred candied peel. Half a gill of milk may be required to get the dough nicely workable. Line a cake mould with several folds of buttered paper, pour in the mixture, smooth it over the top, and sprinkle the top with a little water, then with sugar, sweetmeats, and shred almonds, and bake one and a half hours in a moderate oven, protecting it above and below from burning. This cake should properly be kept four months. By the bye, you will CAKES. 109 find that 9oz. of ordinary flour and 3oz. of the new “ Paisley ” flour, instead of the baking powder, will be a great improve- ment. The next is a modernised but very nice version. Make a dough with Alb. of flour and Joz. dried yeast, dissolved in a gill of lukewarm milk, with a spoonful of sugar ; let this rise for an hour, then work into it two eggs, lOoz. of currants, 4oz. of shred candied peel, 4oz. fresh butter creamed, with 4oz. of caster sugar (
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