Madeira Cake

1 hour

This recipe is from Delia's Cakes.

A bit of a plain Jane, you might think.

But we still all love it. There are times when a piece of really good plain cake is all you want. In this case I would choose to serve it with a glass of chilled Madeira wine, which is in fact what it was invented for.

The Delia Online Cookery School: Watch how to make more loaf cakes including a Very Fruity Irish Tea Cake, Marmalade Cake, and Banana and Walnut in our Loaf Cakes video lesson on this page.

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Method

Start by sifting the flour, salt and baking powder into a roomy mixing bowl, lifting the sieve quite high to give the flour a good airing as it goes down.

Then simply add the butter, eggs, sugar and grated zest and, using an electric hand whisk, combine them for about 1 minute until you have a smooth consistency. Then add the milk, a tablespoon at a time – you need enough to make a creamy consistency that drops off a spoon easily when tapped on the side of the bowl. Be careful not to add too much milk – it needs to be a little stiffer than a sponge cake mix.

Now spoon the mixture into the loaf tin, levelling it off with the back of a tablespoon, and bake on a lower shelf so that the top of the tin is aligned with the centre of the oven for 1 hour or until it feels springy in the centre. Leave in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.

Store in an airtight tin in its liner.

If you like to follow tradition you can lightly place a thin slice of candied citron peel on the surface before baking.