Soccer cake

Well, April has been the month for boys' birthdays. This soccer cake for Marko was a chocolate cake, covered with green buttercream, using the grass tip. The ball was baked in the Wilton soccer pan, and was covered in fondant. Quite fun to make!

I miss Tom and the girls!

As much as a dog misses its bone... Have a great weekend!

Simnel Cake

Where was this cake hiding? It's absolutely out of this world...! Baked with marzipan inside... So good!

Ingredients:
360 gr. cake flour
1/2 ts salt
1 ts mixed spice
1 ts ground cinnamon
1 cup of butter
270 gr brown sugar
5 eggs
rind of 1 lemon, grated
1/2 cup raisins
1 cup of dried cherries and candied fruit peel
60 gr of almonds, chopped
4 tb milk
2 tb apricot jam
300 gr marzipan

1. Grease and line a 9" cake pan (3" high). Sift flour, salt, spice and cinnamon together.
2. Cream butter and sugar until pale and creamy, add lemon rind.
3. Add eggs one by one. Add 3 tb of flour towards end to prevent mixture from curdling.
4. Fold in the rest of the flour, fruit, and milk.
5. Spoon half mixture into pan and spread evenly.
6. Roll half of marzipan to a 9" circle. Place on top of mixture.
7. Spoon rest of mixture and hollow centre slightly.
8. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, then at 300 degrees for an hour.
9. Cool in pan for 15 mts. Turn out on to cooling rack.
10. Brush centre and edge of cake with apricot jam. Roll remaining marzipan to decorate.

* I could not find marzipan in the supermarket (they only bring it for Christmas), so I make my own with 2 egg whites, 1 1/2 cup of ground almond, 2 or 3 cups of icing sugar + 1 ts of vanilla extract and 1 ts of almond extract. Put everything in Kitchenaid and mix until desired consistency.