madeira cake
rating:this is a terrific "basic" cake recipe. Add more lemon and some poppyseeds. Add dried fruit - for instance, sour cherries make it glorious
240g softened unsalted butter
200g caster sugar, plus extra to sprinkle on
grated zest and juice of one lemon
3 large eggs
210g self-raising flour
90g plain flour
23 x 13 x 7 cm loaf tin, buttered and lined (I buy loaf tin liners - much simpler :)
cream butter and sugar, add lemon zest. Add eggs one at a time, with a tbsp of flour with each. Then gently mix in the rest of the flour, then the lemon juice.
put it in the tin, sprinkle with caster sugar (couple of tbsps will do nicely), pop in the oven and bake for an hour or so. Standard skewer test applies. Remove to a wire rack, and allow to cook in the tin.
