Exotic Fruit Simnel Cake

Ingredients: 
6 oz light muscovado sugar
6 oz olive oil spread
grated zest of one lemon
12 oz dried mixed exotic fruits
2 oz glace cherries - roughly chopped
7 oz self raising flour
1 oz ground almonds
1 tsp ground mixed spice
3 large eggs
1 passion fruit
6 oz natural marzipan 

To decorate:
1 pack ready rolled natural marzipan
1 pack ready rolled regal/fondant icing
1-2 tbsp apricot jam

Method:
Cream together the muscovado sugar and olive oil spread
Stir in the grated lemon zest
In another bowl mix together the flour, ground almonds and mixed spice
Add one egg to the creamed mixture, and a third of the dry/flour ingredients and stir
Repeat this stage twice until all 3 eggs and all the flour mixture are incorporated
Fold in the mixed dried fruit and chopped cherries
Scoop the flesh from the passion fruit and stir into the cake mixture

Roll out the marzipan into a circle and cut to the exact size of a 20 cm, loose bottomed cake tin (using the loose bottom as a template)
Butter and line the cake tin with greaseproof/parchment paper
Spoon half of the cake mixture into the tin and smooth it level
Place the marzipan disc on top of the mixture
Spoon the rest of the cake mixture on top of the marzipan

Cook at 170 degrees for 25 minutes and then turn the oven temperature down to 150 degrees and continue to cook for another 1 - 1 1/4 hours
Cover the cake with greaseproof paper if it is browning too quickly 
Leave the cake to completely cool before removing from the tin 

To decorate: 
Melt the apricot jam and spread over the top and sides of the cake
Cover with a layer of marzipan (as per the pack instructions)
Slightly moisten the marzipan with a small amount of water and cover with the regal/fondant icing (as per the pack instructions)
Simnel cakes always have 11 small balls of marzipan/icing on the top to represent 11 apostles.  I used some of the excess icing which was trimmed from around the cake. 

For my exotic fruit mix I used raisins, apricots, papaya, pineapple and sultanas
I have never before used ready rolled marzipan or icing.  They both needed to be warmed in the hand before unrolling so that they did not crack.  My icing did crack a little bit at the very end of the roll.  I was a bit disappointed that both packs were slightly uneven and there were ridges in both layer.  Perhaps if I used these more regularly I would learn the knack of smoothing them out a bit more. 
I sprayed the cake with a small amount of edible golden shimmer
This made 11 very big slices, each slice had a ball on top.  The cake could easily have been cut into at least 15 slices.