Easy Simnel Cake Traybake

To make the simnel cake…

1. First, place all the dried fruit in a large bowl and squeeze over the juice of the 2 oranges (make sure you zest the oranges first as zesting a squeezed orange is super hard!). Stir together with your hands to help the dried fruit absorb the orange juice.
2. Next, grease and line a 33 by 23cm (13 by 9ins) cake pan (see tips above) and preheat your oven to 160C / 140C fan / gas mark 3 / 325F.
3. Now beat together the softened butter and light brown sugar.
4. Add the 4 eggs, one at a time, thoroughly mixing in each egg before adding the next.
5. Next, gently fold in the flour, almonds, cinnamon and mixed spice.
6. Then add the dried fruit and any remaining soaking liquid, plus the orange zest.
7. Finally, VERY GENTLY stir in the marzipan cubes, so as not to squish them too much.
8. Tip the cake mixture into your prepared traybake tin and place in the oven for 1 hour, or until the cake is golden brown on top and just starting to come away from the sides. If you poke a skewer into the centre of the cake, it should come away clean – though do be careful, as if you get a bit of marzipan it looks a lot like uncooked cake mixture, when in fact it isn’t – so test a few times, just to make sure.
9. When the cake is cooked, use the baking paper to lift the cake out onto a wire rack and allow to cool completely before decorating.

To decorate…

1. Place the icing sugar in a small bowl and add just enough orange juice (from the 3rd orange) to make a thick, but still pourable glacé icing.
2. Drizzle the icing over the cake graffiti style – diagonally one way and then the opposite way. Keep back a little of the icing as you will need it to stick the marzipan balls onto the cake.
3. Next, scatter over the flaked almonds.
4. Roll the remaining marzipan into 20 roughly equal sized balls (tip – weigh them to get the right size – they should weigh roughly 15g (½ oz) each).
5. Heat your grill (broiler) up to its highest temperature, and place the shelf on its highest setting (i.e. as near the heat as possible).
6. Place your marzipan balls on a grill rack and place under the grill for a few seconds, until they go brown. Watch the balls like a hawk as they brown super-fast!
7. Use the remaining icing to stick the marzipan balls to the top of the simnel cake in a grid pattern – 4 by 5 (4 along the shortest side and 5 along the longest section).
8. Finally cut the cake into 20 pieces, ensuring everyone gets a marzipan ball!