Madeira Cake

Wednesday 9 Apr 2008

This recipe, is the best of any version. It's just one of those plain cakes (no Madeira in the recipe!) you think you can't see the point of, until you start slicing and eating it.

Ingredients :

· 1-1/3 cups self-rising cake flour
· 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

· 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
· 3/4 cup sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
· grated lemon zest
· 3 large eggs

· juice of 1 lemon

(Cooking Conversion Chart)

Cooking Procedures :

1. Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Prepare 9 x 5 inch loaf pan, buttered and lined with parchment or wax paper. Set aside.

2. Cream butter and 3/4 cup sugar and then add the lemon zest. Add the eggs one at a time with a tablespoon of the flour for each addition. Then, gently mix in the rest of the flour, and finally the lemon juice.

3. Pour batter into prepared pan, and sprinkle 2 tbsp. of sugar on top. Place pan in the center of the oven and bake for about 1 hour or until a cake tester inserted comes out clean.

4. Remove from oven and let cool in the pan before turning out. Makes 8 to 10 slices.

VARIATIONS
Old-Fashioned Seed Cake
Add a couple of teaspoons of caraway to the batter.

Lemon Poppyseed Cake
Add the juice of another half lemon and a tablespoon or two of poppyseeds.

Lemon Strawberry Cake
Upped the liquid to the juice of 2 lemons and folded in about a cup of tiny dried strawberries (for curiosity experiment). Or a choose of any fruits you like.