15-20 minutes preparation

20 minutes cooking

20 minutes to decorate

Preheat oven to 160 º C ( 325 º F) , or gas mark 3

Ingredients

• 175g / 6 oz butter
• 175g / 6 oz soft brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 100g / 4oz plain flour
• 100g / 4oz wholemeal flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 300g / 10oz currants
• 175g / 6oz sultanas
• grated rind of one lemon
• 1tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 2 or 3 tbsp milk
• few spoons of apricot jam
• block of marzipan for decoration

Method

• Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
• Beat in eggs 1 at a time, adding a spoonful of flour each time to prevent curdling.
• Combine all the rest of the ingredients, except the milk and fold mixture gently.
• Add just enough milk so that the mix drops from a spoon.
• Turn into a greased 8 inch / 20 cm round tin.
• Bake for around 2 hours, until a skewer inserted comes out clean, then allow to cool.
• Brush the top of the cake with warmed apricot jam. Roll out around 2/3 of the marzipan and lay over the cake. Use the remainder to make the 11 “disciples” and hold each in place with a little jam.
• Place the cake under a medium grill to brown the marzipan. If you buy ready made marzipan, try getting it in a health food store, as the flavour will be better and it will have less artificial ingredients.