As our craving for traditional local food grows, old-fashioned recipes such as simnel cake are making a big comeback. The cake dates from medieval times, when rich plum puddings were boiled and then baked in the oven inside a pastry crust, so that they were incredibly solid and heavy. The most charming story of its origins is that a couple named Simon and Nelly made a cake to celebrate the end of Lent, but argued about whether it should be boiled or baked. As a compromise they decided to do both, and the result became known as the cake of Simon and Nelly, later shortened to Sim-Nel. However it is much more likely that the name comes from the Latin word for the fine wheat flour that was used: simila. Tradition has it that serving girls took a simnel cake home to their mothers on Nourishment Sunday, or Mother’s Day. The cake was often kept until Easter and has gradually become an Easter tradition.

Are there different regional versions? Various recipes evolved around the country, the most famous of which are the Bury simnel, a flattish cake, topped with almonds; the Devizes simnel, a star-shaped fruit cake; and the Shrewsbury Simnel, which is the most familiar: a fruit cake with a layer of marzipan through the middle, topped with more marzipan and decorated with eleven marzipan balls, one for each of the apostles, except Judas. Traditionally the marzipan is then toasted until golden brown. Some people add an extra ball or a candle to represent Christ. Julian Day, of Meg Rivers Cakes, says the company makes simnel cakes by hand in small batches: “No secret ingredients, just a great recipe, no artificial additives or extra decoration and no short cuts.”

How does the fruit cake differ from Christmas cake? According to Meg Rivers’ master baker, Mike Wallace, the cake is a far cry from its brick-like origins. “We use no raisins, just currants and sultanas, along with English butter, local free range eggs and flour, muscovado sugar, glace cherries and peel, and we use different spices: cinnamon and nutmeg, as opposed to mixed spice and cloves in Christmas cake. There’s a lot more ground almonds, and the marzipan is key,” says Wallace, who, in the run-up to Easter, hand-rolls 12,000 marzipan balls for the cakes, which are painstakingly fixed and toasted using a blowtorch. “At home it is lovely to make your own almond paste, which will be more coarse than commercial marzipan, but it isn’t practical for us, so we source the best natural paste we can find. The almond oil released from the layer of paste through the centre of the cake, together with that from the ground almonds, keeps it lovely and moist.”

Where to buy Meg Rivers Cakes, from £19.95 (to serve eight). Last orders: March 17 (www.megrivers.com; 01608 682858). Julie Duff of Church Farmhouse Cakes hand-makes simnel cakes – order on 01476 870150.

Readers’ queries

Where can I find good chocolate eggs that look like real eggs? Chic chocolatier Melt makes chocolate “soft boiled eggs” in ceramic cups, £7 each plus delivery (020-7727 5030; www.meltchocolates.com).

If you have a food query, e-mail food.detective@thetimes.co.uk

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