A typical Easter recipe is the Simnel Cake, a sort of plum cake filled with candied lemon peels and dried fruit, which takes its yellow color from the crunchy crust covered with saffron.
The simnel cake is a typical cake of the Anglo-Saxon tradition of the Easter period well-known in the United Kingdom, Ireland and other former English territories.
It is a brown cake, prepared with cane sugar, enriched with candied fruit, raisins and mixed spices, made of two layers of marzipan or marzipan paste, one in the center of the cake and a layer arranged on the surface.
The peculiarity of this cake lies in the eleven eggs, prepared with almond paste, which symbolize the apostles sitting at the table, minus Judas.
The Simnel cake is the dessert that is made for Easter Sunday, as an alternative to the Hot Cross Buns, after the long fast of the forty days of Lent.
This cake seems to have origins even in the distant Middle Ages and like all classic and traditional recipes, each locality has its own cake recipe which can even take on a different form.
In some traditions, the Simnel cake is prepared on the occasion of Mother's Day, when the young girls gave their mothers a day off, dedicating themselves not only to the various household services, but also to the preparation of a cake dedicated to them.

Ingredients for 10 people
200 g of flour
175 g of brown sugar
150 g of butter
3 eggs
1 teaspoon of baking soda
3 teaspoons of baking powder
80 g of raisins
80 g of candied fruit
1 teaspoon cinnamon (powdered)
1 lime zest
1 teaspoon ginger (powdered)
1 pinch of salt

To prepare the Simnel cake, start by combining the brown sugar and the softened butter in pieces and work with the whisk of an electric mixer or a planetary mixer.
When you have obtained a soft and swollen cream, add the eggs, add one at a time and process after each addition, until completely absorbed.
Process the brown sugar, eggs and butter
Add the other ingredients in.
Now you can add the flour, baking soda and baking powder, cinnamon, ginger and a pinch of salt and work again to mix the ingredients.
Finally, add the soaked and squeezed raisins, the candied fruit and the grated lime zest.
Mix everything with a spatula.
Fill the mold and bake.
Pour half of the dough into a large diameter buttered and floured mold or lined with parchment paper, level it.
With 1/3 of the almond paste, make a sheet of 18 cm in diameter and place it on the dough in the mould.

Then cover with the rest of the dough, which you will still be leveling. Bake the cake in a preheated oven at 180°C for 1 hour and 3/4. Check the cooking with a toothpick and let it cool completely. Fill the mold and bake
Brush with jam
When the cake is completely cold, turn it out of the mold and brush the surface with the apricot jam. Brush with the jam
Decorate the cake
With the remaining almond paste, make a disc slightly larger than the diameter of the cake and shape 11 eggs. Then cover the cake with the almond paste disc and decorate with the eggs.
Brush and cook:
Brush the surface of the almond paste with an egg yolk beaten with a spoonful of water and put the cake in the oven in grill mode for about 4 minutes or color it with a flame spear.
Now let your Simnel cake cool down, decorate it in the center with eggs, flowers or Easter stickers and serve it.