Ingredients

For the icing:

• 7 dried apricots
• 250 ml soya milk
• 200g ground sesame seeds or ground almonds
  or a mixture of both. ‘Organic’ is essential for flavour.
  (Both can be ground in an electric coffee mill.)
  
  For the cake:
• 80g candied orange and lemon peel, finely chopped.
• Generous cup of organic sultanas and/or raisins.
• 500g Organic Plain White Flour,
  plus a bit extra for dusting fruit.
• 2 tablespoons ground linseeds
  (can be ground in coffee mill).
  If a strong bread flour is used, linseed is not necessary.
• 2 level teaspoons of cream of tartar
• 1 level teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
• 1 desert spoon Rapeseed Oil
• 1 tablespoon of vegan margarine or pure vegetable fat
• up to ½ litre soya milk
  (can be diluted to economise)

Cooking equipment

• chopping board and sharp knife
• small stainless steel saucepan and wooden spoon
• medium-sized mixing bowl
• measuring jug
• (electric coffee mill if possible)
• cooking timer (if possible)
• hand-held electric food mixer if possible
• palette knife or butter knife for applying icing
• storage container with lid for storing icing in fridge
• small mixing bowl
• Large mixing bowl and sieve
• Strong wooden spoon
• whisk, or whisk attachment to hand-held electric food mixer
• baking paper or greaseproof
• 2 round cake tins (15 cm)
• Wire cooling rack
• bread knife and board
• tall storage container

Method


For the icing:
• (1) Grind sesame seeds (or almonds)
  and put aside in a medium-sized mixing bowl.
• (2) Chop dried apricots into small pieces and put aside.
• (3) Measure 250 ml soya milk and place in
  a small stainless steel saucepan, add the dried
  apricot pieces, and bring to the boil.
• (4)Turn down the heat and leave to simmer,
  without a lid, for about 20 minutes.
  
{Set a timer and begin making cake – Step 8.}
• (5) When the apricots are very soft and
  coagulating with the soya milk, remove from the heat
  and liquidise/mix to a smooth fluid.
• (6)Pour the mixture onto the ground seeds/nuts
  and mix with a wooden spoon into a smooth paste.
• (7) Pack the paste into an airtight container
  and store in the fridge until required.

For the cake:
• (8)Finely chop the candied peel.
  Wash the sultanas/raisins.
  Place the fruit in a small mixing bowl.
  Dust the fruit with plain white flour so that
  each piece is separate. Set aside.
• (9)Sieve 500 g plain white flour
  into a large mixing bowl. (Add linseed if required.)
• (10) Add bicarbonate of soda and cream of tartar. Mix in evenly.
• (11)Prepare the cake tins and pre-heat the oven
  (to around Gas Mark 4, 177 degrees Celsius, or 350 Fahrenheit).
  Cake tins need to be greased with pure vegetable fat or vegan
  margarine, and lined with paper,
  which must also be greased on the exposed side.
  Try to cut the paper circle to the same size as the tin,
  and fix this on top after folding the strips round the sides,
  with slight overlap at the bottom.
• (12)Add rapeseed oil and vegan margarine/pure vegetable fat to the dry ingredients.
  Mix these into the flour as evenly as possible
  with a strong wooden spoon.
• (13)Add the dusted fruit pieces. Mix in well.
• (14)Pour soya milk gradually into the mixture.
  Stir with the wooden spoon.
  When the consistency is fluid enough, use a whisk, until
  the mixture is smooth and stands in peaks.
• (15)Spoon the mixture into the two cake tins,
  sharing the amount between them evenly.
  Ensure that it goes into the corners, and flatten
  the top (with a slight indent in the middle, not around
  the edges for the cake will rise more in the centre and
  a flat surface is desirable.
• (16)Place the two cake tins on the same shelf in the oven.
  Bake for approximately 25-30 minutes, give or take 5 minutes.
  After 20 minutes, check to make sure that the cakes are not
  already done. When the flat side of a knife is pressed upon them
  they should spring up quite firmly, and appear golden/cooked.
• (17)When cooked, remove tins from the oven.
  Leave to cool slightly, then place upside down on a wire rack.
  Remove the tins and paper, and leave to cool thoroughly.
  If covered with a baking net, they can be left safely
  until the following day.
• (18)To ice, remove the seed/nut paste from the fridge.
  Ensure that the cakes are quite flat on both sides
  (take a bread knife and cut flat if necessary). Choose
  the best side for the top, the next best for the bottom,
  then add a layer of paste to the sides in between.
  
• (19)When the top cake is standing on the bottom
  with a layer of icing in between, ensure a smooth finish
  between the two by filling in any gaps with icing.
• (20)Add a layer of smooth icing to the top surface
  of the cake. Then make 11 small paste balls, and 1 larger one.
  (These represent the eleven true disciples, and Jesus.)
  Place the large ball in the centre of the cake, and the
  eleven smaller ones in a circle, evenly round the edge.
  (If there is paste remaining, it can be used as a sandwich
  filler.) Wrap the sides of the cake with a pink ribbon
  (or leave bare) so that it may be more easily handled when
  moving and serving.

Happy Mother’s Day!
Goes well with fruit juice, and is easy to eat with a fork.