Simnel cakes are traditional Easter stalwarts due for a revival. In the late seventeenth century girls in service brought home these rich fruit cakes on the fourth Sunday in Lent. The early Simnel cakes were made from whatever spare ingredients were available from the kitchen in the ‘big’ house. Now, however, a Simnel cake is usually a fruit cake topped with a layer of marzipan and seasonal decorations and uses ingredients carefully selected by the baker to produce a cake of the highest quality.
Kluman and Balter, specialist ingredients supplier to the bakery industry, stocks a vast range of products especially for cake making and decorating. Kluman and Balter considers itself effectively a massive ‘larder’ for craft bakeries, holding everything needed for Simnel and other Easter cakes including sugars, black treacle, egg products, fats and oils, nuts, colourings and decorations. The ingredients essential for traditional Simnel cakes are sourced worldwide and include best quality Turkish sultanas, Turkish raisins, Greek currants, glace cherries, mixed peel and mixed fruit.
But rich fruit cakes are not to everyone’s taste. For a modern variation Kluman and Balter suggests an unconventional chocolate Simnel cake. The company can supply everything needed to make this delicious option – the chocolate cake pre-mix, marzipan topping as well as chocolate couverture, icings and dark and light chocolate sprinkles and curls for decoration.
“We’ve also looked into that other Easter perennial the Hot Cross Bun,” says Jamie Kluman. “We’ve managed to source an excellent Hot Cross Bun Concentrate and a new luxury orange soaked mixed fruit. When these are combined together the result is an extra special Easter treat.”
Kluman and Balter’s service to the craft baker goes beyond ingredients supply. The company’s team of in-house food technologists is always developing new recipes and offers advice and recipes sheets to customers. All products are delivered direct to the customer’s door, in allocated time slots, by Kluman and Balter’s fleet of specialist vehicles and drivers.
For more information visit www.klumanandbalter.com or call Kluman & Balter on 01992 704000
Notes for editors:
Kluman and Balter’s Eastertime Hot Cross Bun Recipe
1 x 4.15kg sachet Hot Cross Bun Concentrate
16kg flour
1kg yeast
11kg water (adjust quantity depending on the flour used)
8kg of luxury orange soaked mixed fruit
Bunspice