Simnel cake

Preheat oven to 150 &degC, grease and line an 18 cm diameter x 7 cm deep cake tin.
Place almonds in a pan and toast until light golden.
Allow to cool and chop roughly.
Cream butter and sugar until the mixture is light in colour.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Beat until light and fluffy.
Halve the marzipan and wrap half in clingwrap for later.
Cut the other half into 1 cm cubes and toss them in 15 ml of the flour.
Sift the dry ingredients.
Add the dry ingredients, fruit and zest to the butter mixture and mix well.
Fold in the squares of marzipan and toasted almonds.
Spoon the cake mixture into the prepared tin and smooth the surface.
Cover the top with foil and bake for about 50 minutes.br>Remove the foil and bake for a further 45 minutes to an hour, until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Allow to cool completely in the tin, then remove from the tin.
To decorate, brush the surface with apricot jam when cool.
Roll out the remaining marzipan and cut out an 18 cm circle.
Place the marzipan circle on top of the cake and decorate with small Easter eggs.