Match of the week

Simnel cake and Orange Pekoe tea

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on March 20 2008 at 09:07

Simnel cake, for those of you who are not familiar with it, is the traditional British Easter cake (although at one time it was baked to celebrate Mother’s Day).

It’s a fruit cake, sandwiched and covered with marzipan and decorated with little marzipan balls though these days you’ll often find them adorned with sugared easter eggs and yellow fluffy chicks as well. If you’re anywhere near a Betty’s Tea Room which has branches in York, Harrogate, Ilkley and Northallerton, if I remember right, that’s the sort of place to buy one though traditional bakers and large department stores like Fortnum & Mason in London will sell them too.

It’s the kind of cake with which you could perfectly well drink a glass of sweet sherry or Madeira but I’m going for a regular - or perhaps not-so-regular tea - Orange Pekoe. It’s not, as the name suggests, infused with orange, but describes a premium grade of tea which tends to have particularly large fragrant leaves. Of course, any good quality black tea such as a Ceylon tea would be enjoyable too.

Image © SibylleMohn - Fotolia.com

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