Corona Challenge Cake with a little help from Dan Lepard

They say a little baking is good for the soul.  To help lift my spirits today I baked a cake.  It was a sort of scrap box challenge cake.

From the freezer last night, out came some items lurking in the corners:  a small slab of marzipan left over from my stollen making at Christmas, and some oven reduced plums from last summer.

I only had stone-ground wholemeal spelt flour, which I sieved a couple of times to make lighter and remove most of the coarse bits.

The batter for the cake was based on the Rye Apple Cake from 'Short and Sweet'.  I didn't use almonds as was using up the marzipan, and used 200g spelt flour.  I didn't have the full 100g muscovado sugar so mixed in some caster sugar.

I just love the special edition Golden Syrup tins....

Some of the marzipan was folded in with the batter, and the rest placed around the surface.

Then I remembered the Sweet Cicely  and my dear friend Kay from Kenilworth, and wanted to use a little.  The flowers are just emerging so instead of using seeds, I sprinkled the leaves over the top.

We could wait till dinner time to have a slice as dessert with yogurt.   A delicious slive was enjoyed at tea time....