View source for Simnel cake

{{short description|Layered fruit cake associated with Easter}}
{{Infobox prepared food
| name               = Simnel cake
| image              = Decorated Simnel cake (14173161143).jpg
| image_size         = 300px
| caption            = Simnel cake (this one has ten balls around the edge and one in the centre, traditionally it would have all eleven around the edge)
| alternate_name     = 
| country            = [[United Kingdom]]
| region             = 
| creator            = 
| course             = [[Dessert]]
| type               = [[Fruitcake]]
| served             = 
| main_ingredient    = 
| variations         = 
| calories           = 
| other              = 
}}
'''Simnel cake''' is a [[fruitcake]] associated with [[Lent]] and [[Easter]] and widely eaten in [[England]], [[Ireland]] and countries with patterns of migration from them. It is distinguished by layers of [[almond paste]] or [[marzipan]], typically one in the middle and one on top, and a set of eleven balls made of the same paste. It was originally made for the fourth Sunday in Lent,<ref name="BBC Religions: Mothering Sunday">{{cite web |url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/holydays/motheringsunday_1.shtml |title= Mothering Sunday |website=bbc.co.uk|access-date=14 July 2012}}</ref> also known as [[Laetare Sunday]], the [[Refreshment Sunday]] of Lent (when the 40-day fast would be relaxed), [[Mothering Sunday]], the Sunday of the Five Loaves,<ref>{{Catholic Encyclopedia|wstitle=Laetare Sunday|prescript=}}</ref> or Simnel Sunday; named after the cake.<ref name=Massey>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=UNXUq4cehBcC&pg=PA269 |title=A Book of the Beginnings|page=269  |first=Gerald |last= Massey  |publisher=Cosimo, Inc.|date= 2007 |isbn=9781602060821 }}</ref> In the United Kingdom, it is commonly associated with Mothering Sunday and Easter Sunday.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Berry |first1=Mary |title=Easter cake recipe |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/easter_simnel_cake_82449 |website=BBC Food |access-date=4 April 2021 |language=en}}</ref>

== Decoration ==
[[File:Simnel cake 1.jpg|thumb|Simnel cake decorated with marzipan]]
Conventionally, 11 marzipan balls are used to decorate the cake, symbolising the 12 [[Apostles in the New Testament|apostles]] minus [[Judas Iscariot]].<ref name="BBC Religions: Mothering Sunday" /><ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.foodepedia.co.uk/articles/2012/mar/Harrod's_Simnel_Cake.htm |first=Lara |last= Cory |date=19 March 2012 |title=The Debated History of the Simnel Cake |work=Foodepedia |access-date=14 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120619041051/https://www.foodepedia.co.uk/articles/2012/mar/Harrod's_Simnel_Cake.htm |archive-date=19 June 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00zzr1k/features/simnel-cake |website=BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour|title= Cook the Perfect... Simnel Cake |access-date=27 September 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140425155334/https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00zzr1k/features/simnel-cake |archive-date=25 April 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Occasionally, 12 are used, representing Jesus and the 11 apostles.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16631679 |title= Food symbolism: Why do we give food meaning? |first=Anna-Louise |last= Taylor |work=bbc.co.uk |date=23 January 2012 |access-date=9 April 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=fJ_JDp9OgJEC&pg=PA155 |title=Food and cooking in Victorian England: a history |page=155 |first=Andrea |last= Broomfield |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year= 2007 |isbn=9780275987084 }}</ref> However, an early reference to decorating with marzipan balls appears in May Byron's ''Pot-Luck Cookery'',<ref name="Byron1926">{{cite book|last=Byron|first=May Clarissa Gillington |author-link=May Byron|title=Pot-luck|url={{google books|7_wOAAAAQAAJ|plainurl=yes|keywords=simnel}}|edition=7th|year=1926|page=421}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.foodsofengland.info/Gloucester_Simnel_Cake.html|website=The Foods of England |title= Gloucester Simnel Cake|access-date=2025-04-21}}</ref> but with no mention of this symbolism, and her version may well be derived from earlier styles, which were sometimes crenellated.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.foodsofengland.info/shrewsburysimnelcake.html|website=The Foods of England |title= Shrewsbury Simnel Cake|access-date=2025-04-21}}</ref>

==Ingredients==
[[File:Simnel cake (slice) (7099875159).jpg|thumb|upright|A slice of the cake showing dried fruits]]
Simnel cake is a light fruitcake, generally made from the following ingredients: [[white flour]], [[sugar]], [[butter]], [[Egg (food)|eggs]], fragrant [[spice]]s, [[dried fruit]]s, [[zest (ingredient)|zest]] and candied peel. Sometimes orange flower water or brandy is used, either in the cake batter or to flavour the almond paste. In most modern versions, marzipan or almond paste is used as a filling, with a layer laid in the middle of the mix before the cake is cooked, and as decoration on top.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://blog.rachelcotterill.com/2011/04/traditional-simnel-cake-recipe.html|title=Traditional Simnel Cake Recipe|website=blog.rachelcotterill.com|access-date=2012-04-07|archive-date=2012-05-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120501235214/http://blog.rachelcotterill.com/2011/04/traditional-simnel-cake-recipe.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Most recipes require at least 90 minutes of cooking, and advise using several layers of baking parchment to line the tin, and sometimes brown paper wrapped around the outside to stop the marzipan burning.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/mar/26/how-to-cook-the-perfect-sinmel-cake|title=How to cook the perfect simnel cake|last=Cloake|first=Felicity|date=2015-03-26|work=The Guardian|access-date=2017-04-28|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

==History==
Simnel cakes have been known since at least [[Middle Ages|medieval times]]. Bread regulations of the time suggest they were boiled and then baked, a technique which led to an invention myth, in circulation from at least 1745 until the 1930s,<ref name="Veillée1745">{{cite book|author=Anon|title=Veillée à la campagne: or, the Simnel. A tale. &#91;In verse.&#93;|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aAjqk-gNPhoC|year=1745|publisher=R. Manby & H. S. Cox|location=London|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=Simnel Cakes|date=21 March 1924|work=The Times}}</ref> whereby a mythical couple, Simon and Nelly, fall out over making a Simnel. One wishes to boil it, one to bake it and, after beating each other with various household implements, they compromise on a recipe which uses both techniques. 

Simnel cakes are often associated with Mothering Sunday,<ref name=mothsun>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47692060 |title=Mother's Day: From medieval brawls to greeting cards and flowers|website=BBC News |author=Joseph Lee |date= 30 March 2019}}</ref> also known as Simnel Sunday.<ref>{{Cite OED|simnel|id=179910}}</ref> According to historian [[Ronald Hutton]], the custom of live-in apprentices and domestic servants going home (their only day off in the year) to visit their "Mother Church" where they had been Christened, and visit their mothers (and family) on Mothering Sunday, checking that their families were well and taking food or money if needed, started in 17th Century [[Gloucestershire]] and [[Worcestershire]]. This was a time of year when food stocks were low, and the high-calorie simnel cake was useful nutrition.<ref name=mothsun/> The cake later simply became an Easter cake.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RL6LAwAAQBAJ|title=The Oxford Companion to Food|last=Davidson|first=Alan|date=2014|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199677337|language=en}}</ref>

The meaning of the word "simnel" is unclear: there is a 1226 reference to "bread made into a simnel", which is understood to mean the finest white bread,<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=6Sg9AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA223 |title=Lancashire folk-lore|pages=223–224 |author-link1=John Harland |first1=John|last1=Harland|first2=Thomas Turner |last2=Wilkinson |publisher=F. Warne|year= 1867 }}</ref> from the Latin {{lang|la|simila}}, "fine flour" (from which '[[semolina]]' also derives). [[John de Garlande]] felt that the word was equivalent to [[placenta cake]],<ref name=Massey/> a cake that was intended to please.<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=OnLFQA4O11MC&pg=PA206 |title=A History of Food |page=206 |first=Maguelonne |last= Toussaint-Samat |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |date=2009|isbn=9781444305142 }}</ref>

===Variations===
[[File:Simnel Cake, 1869.jpg|upright=1.3|thumb|right|Shrewsbury Simnel cake with pastry covering and crenellated decoration, 1869]]
Different towns had their own recipes and shapes of the Simnel cake. Both [[Bury, Greater Manchester|Bury]] and [[Shrewsbury]] produced large numbers to their own recipes. ''[[Chambers Book of Days]]'' (1869) contains an illustration of the Shrewsbury Simnel cake:<ref name="foodsofengland">{{cite web |title=Foods of England - Shrewsbury Simnel Cake |url=https://www.foodsofengland.info/shrewsburysimnelcake.html |website=www.foodsofengland.info |access-date=21 April 2025}}</ref>

{{blockquote|It is an old custom in Shropshire and [[Herefordshire]], and especially at Shrewsbury, to make during Lent and Easter, and also at Christmas, a sort of rich and expensive cakes, which are called Simnel Cakes. They are raised cakes, the crust of which is made of fine flour and water, with sufficient saffron to give it a deep yellow colour, and the interior is filled with the materials of a very rich plum-cake, with plenty of candied lemon peel, and other good things. They are made up very stiff; tied up in a cloth, and boiled for several hours, after which they are brushed over with egg, and then baked. When ready for sale the crust is as hard as if made of wood ... the accompanying engraving, representing large and small cakes as now on sale in Shrewsbury. The usage of these cakes is evidently one of great antiquity.}}

In Shrewsbury, as elsewhere in England, the Simnel cake is usually made with the Bury recipe.<ref name="foodsofengland"/>

==See also==
* [[List of almond dishes]]
*[[List of foods with religious symbolism]]
*[[Mazurek (cake)]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Commons category|Simnel cakes}}
{{Cakes}}
{{Portal bar|Food}}

[[Category:British cakes]]
[[Category:Easter cakes]]
[[Category:English traditions]]
[[Category:Marzipan]]
[[Category:Layer cakes]]