Excerpt
My Mother-In-Laws Madeira
Cake
I dont know if I ever ate Madeira cake as a child
-- I suspect
not -- but just the sight of this golden-yellow loaf with its long crack down the
middle makes me feel curiously nostalgic. This recipe, given to me by my mother-in-law
Carrie, is the best of any version Ive tried. Its just one of those plain
cakes you think you cant see the point of, but once you start slicing and eating
it, you know.
1 cup butter
¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
3 large eggs
1 ¼ cups self-rising cake flour
½ cup all-purpose flour
small loaf pan
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter your loaf pan.
Cream the butter and sugar, and add the lemon zest.
Add the eggs one at a time with a tablespoon of the flour (the two kinds mixed
together) for each. Then gently mix the rest of the flour and, finally, the
lemon juice.
Sprinkle with sugar (about 2 tablespoons should
do it) as it goes into the oven, and bake for 1 hour or until a cake-tester
comes out clean. Remove to a wire rack, and let cool in the pan before turning
out.
Copyright
© 2001 Nigella Lawson