Skip to main content
Dessert

Simnel Cakes

Simnel Cakes are a fruit cake with saffron, dried fruits, candied lemon peel, boiled then baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Saffron and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 538 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Simnel Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the dough

  1. In a bowl, mix flour, water, and saffron to form a stiff dough.

  2. Incorporate mixed dried fruits and candied lemon peel into the dough.

Boil and bake

  1. Tie the dough in a cloth and boil for several hours.

  2. Remove from water, brush with beaten egg, and bake at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Saffron + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together538 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Flour + saffrontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together447 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Forms the stiff dough that holds the fruit together and gives the cake its structure.
Mixed dried fruits
Add sweetness and chewy texture throughout the cake.
Candied lemon peel
Adds bright citrus aroma and a touch of tartness to the dough.
Saffron
Gives the dough a yellow colour and a subtle, distinctive aroma.
Eggs
Brushed on before baking, they give the crust a glossy, golden browned finish.

The step that matters

Boiling the dough for several hours. A stiff dough needs sustained, steady heat to cook through and set. Boiling it fully in its cloth ensures the centre is cooked before the final bake.

Swap the saffron

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, lemon, egg):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Saffronthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, lemon, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

More simnel cake recipes

Almond 3 See all 19 →

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipesLemon CustardLemon Custard64 recipes