During my daughter’s Junior school years, we were asked to contribute a recipe for a fund-raising Cookbook – I’m sure many of you have done this too. I found that book, and several others last week, and have been having a great time marvelling at the variety and ingenuity of some of these recipes. One in particular caught my eye, so on a rather dull and stormy November Saturday afternoon, I decided to give an All-in-one Madeira Cake my attention.
This was written as an orange-flavoured cake, so that’s what I made, but of course Lemon, Vanilla or Caraway seeds, to mention but a few, would work admirably well too. I was very pleased with the result.
This recipe is for a single 1lb Cake, but as I never do anything by halves – 😉 – I naturally doubled the recipe and made 2 cakes! Same amount of work; twice the cake!
This cake is simplicity itself. I iced it because I felt like it, but it’s perfect just as it is too.
EQUIPMENT:
- 1 -or 2- one pound Loaf tins
- Baking parchment or a loaf tin liner (Guilty, yer honour!)
- A fine grater
- An electric beater – either hand-held or incorporating a bowl, etc.
INGREDIENTS: These quantities are for a single cake. If you have a second 1lb loaf tin, I recommend doubling this recipe and making 2 cakes. 
- 125g butter – I use Golden Cow Easi-spread in a tub.
- 125g caster sugar
- 125g self-raising flour
- 2 large eggs
- 1 level teaspoon of Baking Powder
- the finely grated rind of an orange
METHOD: Rocket-science, this..
- Heat the oven to 140ºFan or the equivalent.
- Put everything on the list above into the bowl, and beat it until everything is amalgamated.
- Pour it into the lined tin.
- Use a knife to create a dip along the middle, to encourage the cake to rise evenly.
- Bake for 1 hour, turning the tin around halfway through the cooking time.
- Test at 50minutes to check if the cake is fully cooked.
- Remove from tin, and cool on an elevated rack.
- When fully cool, ice it if you like, using 1-2 tablespoons of sifted Icing sugar. Add the juice of the zested orange sparingly until you get the consistency that you like. Pour over the cake, decorate with candied orange slices (for special occasions) or last year’s Christmas sprinkles if you’re me. Leave to set.
- Slice and enjoy!
NOTES: This is a very easy cake, so there are not too many notes ..
- As mentioned before, change up the flavours as you see fit. A plain Madeira is a lovely cake all by itself, so don’t feel you have to add extra flavours.
- This cake tastes best when it has completely cooled.
- If you double the recipe, you’ll have a cake for yourself, plus one to give away, or freeze for another day. I’ll be putting one of these into my Christmas hampers this year.
I started writing down recipes in an old copybook when I was about 16. With 6 children at home, my Mother was always glad of a hand in the kitchen, and really allowed us to experiment - as long as we washed up afterwards, and left the kitchen immaculate! Having a tidy kitchen has followed me through my life, as has the habit of writing down my favourite recipes; except that these days I write them for my website, and add photographs when I can. The website really started when it occurred to me that my daughter might like to have these recipes when I've forgotten them. In my early days of cooking for family and friends, I used to phone my Mum all the time to ask her for the recipe for some of our favourite family dinners. She rarely had a recipe to hand - I think, like me, she made a lot of it up as she went along.. So welcome to Eating for Ireland - these are the recipes that my friends and family having been eating these past 40 years.. yes, I truly am ancient! They are tried and tested, and have worked for me for all that time - I have updated them as new ingredients became available - I really hope you'll find something that you can make into a family favourite of your own. You don't have to tell anyone where you found these great new dishes that you're serving up - it can be our little secret, but I'd really love it if you could give me a sneaky 'follow' on Facebook and Instagram.. So off you go - have a good rummage around, you're bound to find something new! My sincere thanks to all of you who have found a recipe that you liked and dropped me a line to tell me - I really do love to hear from you! Happy Cooking! Becks xx