It has begun!! I was so insanely excited for the first episode that I made sure I had a bowl of crumble and ice cream at the ready for the opening credits of the show! (Because, you know, the Bake-Off makes you really want to eat cake!)

Watching the show, I instantly knew I would want to try the Madeira cake. I’ve never made one before, but I have eaten plenty in my time. And, if you watched the show, you will know that Marie’s Madeira cake was the envy of all the other bakers! (It looked like heaven on a plate, FYI)

Luckily, I managed to find Marie’s recipe online (here) so I gave it a whirl!

Now, I must admit that my cake doesn’t look quite like Marie’s did. I had to specially purchase a loaf tin for the cake, which ended up being double the size of the one recommended. Therefore my cake ended up looking a little………flat.

The process of making the cake was very much the same as making a sponge/lemon drizzle cake. A lot of zesting was involved, as well as lemon-squeezing and pip-picking. I am very fortunate, and I do own a stand mixer (in fact, it is one of my most prized possessions) so I was able to whack all the ingredients in there and just whiz is all up.

The baking time for the cake is a lot longer than a normal cake, and it is often recommended that you cover it with foil once the top has browned to stop it from burning. However, even at a low temperature, my cake cooked in half the time (my oven.is.awful.) When the cake is cooked, you take it out and spread it with the syrup, let it cool, and then decorate with citrus flavoured water icing and some ZEST!

The tell tale sign of a good Madeira cake is a nice long crack along the top. I think it has something to do with the crust you form on the cake (but I could be wrong) and I can announce that mine did get a nice looking crack (OI OI!) I was quite nervous about it just completely sinking, but I was lucky that it worked!

And here is my finished cake! The whole process was pretty easy and pretty much like any other sponge recipe. I had a little issue with the timings, but that is due to my oven being an absolutely nightmare rather than the recipe. The only thing that was different from what I would usually bake is the syrup that is boiled up from the lemon and orange rind and then spread over the cake whilst it is still warm. I did think this might make the cake a little sticky, but it actually set into a delicious crust. Lovely!

WEEK ONE – DONE!

This week, I have learnt that the size of the tin really is important, as I usually just do any old recipe and whack it in any old tin. Listen to the suggested measurement and edit the recipe accordingly!!

See you next week! 🙂