Gloverly Cupcakes

As usual, I struggled to find time to sit down and upload pics of the cakes and baking I’ve been doing. Probably because I’m spending all my time in the kitchen cooking! So here is the super silly Easter cake I made last year, as well as the delicious recipe I used – chocolate, cherry and hazelnut Simnel cake. Click here to see some more pics and the recipe.

I’d seen the recipe a few years ago on the Delicious Magazine website and kept meaning to try it. So I finally got round to making it this year. And it didn’t disappoint! The recipe can be found here

Ingredients

Cake

120g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra to grease
100g caster sugar
300g dark brown muscovado sugar
135g (when drained) cherries in kirsch
100g full-fat Greek yogurt
4 large free-range eggs
320g self-raising flour
80g cocoa powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
200ml cherry juice drink (or pomegranate juice)
250g dried sour cherries

Marzipan

1 large egg
75g caster sugar
80g icing sugar
15g liquid glucose (from the baking section in supermarkets)
1 tbsp brandy, rum or vodka
200g blanched hazelnuts, finely ground in a food processor

Chocolate Ganache

100g Bournville chocolate
100ml double cream
50g Cocoa powder for dusting

• Heat the oven to 170°C/150°C fan/gas 3½. Grease and line the base and sides of a deep 23cm cake tin.
• For the marzipan, put the egg, sugar, icing sugar and glucose into a heatproof mixing bowl and set over a pan of barely simmering water. Beat with a handheld electric mixer until very pale and fluffy – about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and beat in the alcohol, then tip in the ground hazelnuts and mix to a thick paste using a wooden spoon. Using your hands, knead the mixture vigorously for 1-2 minutes until fairly smooth. It won’t be as smooth as regular marzipan, but it will come together. Wrap in cling film and set aside.
• Put the butter, sugars, drained cherries and yogurt in a food processor. Whizz until mixed, then add the remaining ingredients, except the sour cherries, and whizz to a smooth batter. Add the dried sour cherries and pulse until just incorporated.
• Tear off two thirds of the marzipan and carefully roll between 2 pieces of baking paper into a disc just smaller than the cake tin (the hazelnut marzipan is more fragile than regular almond marzipan). Roll the remaining marzipan into 11 equal balls.
• Pour half the cake batter into the tin, then top with the marzipan disc. Pour in the remaining cake batter, then bake for 90 minutes or until a skewer pushed into the middle comes out clean.
• To make the ganache, roughly chop the chocolate and put it in a heatproof bowl with the cream. Set the bowl over a pan of barely simmering water (don’t let the water touch the bowl) and stir together until you have a smooth, glossy ganache. Remove from the heat and beat in the Nutella. Leave to cool at room temperature until spreadable.
• When the cake comes out of the oven, allow it to cool completely in the tin, then invert onto a cake stand. Spread the ganache over the top. For a traditional Simnel cake, arrange the 11 balls of marzipan around the edge. Sift a little extra cocoa powder over the top to finish.

The decorations took a lot longer than planned due to the amount of carrots I had to make! I covered the cake with orange sugar paste first so any gaps in between the carrots would be orange. I made the Happy Easter sign, grass, flowers, bunny ears and feet in advance and had inserted thick florist wires into the ears so I could push them into the cake without them falling over.

Although it took ages and I got quite fed up of making carrots, the cake looked really good and the girls and their cousins loved it! The recipe was great too, super moist and absolutely delicious.