We had a family party for Easter Sunday this year, which is really just an excuse for me to indulge in a big bake-off. I made quite a few cakes, some scones, a big loaf of bread for bread and butter and some club sandwiches. Sadly I didn't think to take a picture of the sandwiches, but I will share with you the secret of the Perfect Club Sandwich. When I worked the brasserie section at the hotel, I used to churn these out by the truckload, and they are one of my absolute favourite things to eat. Full of calories, but delicious all the same.
For one (greedy) person you will need:
4 slices of white bread, toasted
2 generous handfuls of salad leaves such as frisee and rocket mixed with mayonnaise
Half a cold, roasted chicken breast, sliced
One sliced tomato
Two rashers of good back bacon, grilled and still hot
One hardboiled egg sliced thinly with one of those wire contraptions
"Build" your club as follows -
The bottom layer is salad leaves and the hard boiled eggs
The middle layer is the bacon and tomato
The top layer is the chicken and more salad leaves
You will need to skewer it all together with cocktail sticks. Cut into quarters and pop back in the oven/grill to make sure it's hot. Serve with chips and tomato chutney.
I had been contemplating the purchase of a very expensive set of easter cookie cutters online, when where should I stumble across an almost identical set, but Somerfield. At £2.99 compared to £12 + p&p. Suitably satisfied with my bargain I set about these cute little biscuits. The cookie dough is lightly flavoured with lemon and orange, in keeping with the light flavours of spring.
One of my favourite things in the world is marzipan, and I have to make a Simnel cake every year. Simnel cakes evolved from a Mothering Sunday tradition, where young girls in service (ie domestic servants) would take one of these richly fruited and spiced cakes to their mothers on the 4th Sunday of Lent - the cake was a celebration of the reunification of families in this time of austerity. The traditionally decorated simnel cake has 11 marzipan balls around the outside - to represent the 11 faithful disciples of Jesus. Judas, the betrayer, is omitted. What makes this cake different - and infinitely superior - to the traditional English fruit cake is the inclusion of a seam of baked marzipan through the middle of the cake.
The origin of the name of the cake is disputed - some sources say it comes from the latin simila (meaning the fine flour from which the cake was made) and others say it comes from Lambert Simnel - a child pretender to the English throne during the reign of Henry VII. Supposedly, as a punishment, he was put to work in the King's kitchens and devised this cake while working there.
Whatever its origins, it's my favourite Easter tradition !
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My Mother's Simnel Cake
8" round, deep tin
8oz plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp mixed spice
6oz butter
6oz light soft brown sugar
3 eggs
14 - 15 oz dried mixed fruit
2oz glacé cherries, halved, washed and dried
2 tbsp milk
1lb marzipan, half rolled out to a circle 7" in diameter
1. Preheat your oven to 325f/160c or 140c for a fan oven. Line the cake tin
2. Cream the butter and sugar; add the eggs and fold in the flour, spice and baking powder. Finally mix in the milk to thin the mix slightly.
3. Mix in the fruit and cherries.
4. Put half the mixture into the tin and put the marzipan circle in the middle. Top with the remaining mixture. Before putting into the oven make a shallow well in the top of the mixture - this helps to prevent a small, cracked hillock appearing in the top of the cake.
5. Bake for 1 and 3/4 hours. Cool in the tin
6. For the traditional decoration, roll out a thick circle of marzipan and attach to the top of the cake using apricot jam. Form 11 balls of marzipan and stick evenly round the circumference of the cake. Finish with Easter chicks.
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