Madeira Cake and the Mid-week Blahs

It’s Thursday, the kids have been sick in rotation since...like mid-December, and it’s dead of winter (okay, so I live in sunny, southern New Mexico where it’s rarely REALLY cold, but still!). I’ve got the midweek blahs, and needed to bake something sunny and bright. Enter the Madeira Cake.

Doesn't that just make you happy?  Like a wreath of suns :)

As you might remember from my previous entry, I am baking along with the Cake Slice Bakers. Multiple bakers selected this cake, and after reading rave reviews and beautiful photos I thought, “Bingo. That’s the cake I need today.” (Check out the blog links at the bottom of the Bird's Milk post to see some of said reviews and photographs)

Aww, it's smiling and you can see it's dimples.  Clearly, that was intentional.

It's called Madeira, like the Portuguese wine. But there is actually none in this cake.  The slightly curious moniker comes from the 1800s when it was commonly paired with sweet wine (like Madeira).  I am a BIG fan of the Great British Bake Off, and have tried Mary Berry's Madeira Cake.  Because it was the great Mary Berry's recipe, I'm sure that I must have done something wrong, but it wasn't fantastic. It reminded me of cornbread--slightly dry and crumbly.  MB says the cake should have a dome and a cracked top.  This recipe is apparently a different take on the classic. It is tender, moist, sturdy from the addition of almond flour, chock full of lemon flavor, and un-cracked--allowing for a smooth decorating surface.  And it was fairly quick and uncomplicated to make.


I really love lemon. I found some dried, sweetened lemon slices at Trader Joe’s a couple of months ago. I think they were meant as garnishes. I ate every. single. one. Not proud of that, but it does illustrate my enduring love of lemon.


There were a couple more candied lemons, but they were smaller and ugly.  So I ate them--you know, for quality control.  Had no choice.

It was perfect with a cup of tea, and reading from the Psalms.  

 The original recipe calls for the optional addition of lemon oil. All I had was lemon extract (is it the same thing? Who knows. I could Google that if I weren't lazy).  It gave the hint of an artificial bitter aftertaste that was the only negative of this cake.  The next time I make it, I will leave it out.  It was plenty lemony with the zest, soaking syrup, icing and candied lemons.

Also, the recipe says to heat the oven to 335 degrees.  My oven is an old Montgomery Ward brand dinosaur--probably from the mid-1970s at the latest, and has dials.  I turned it about halfway between 325 and 350 and it turned out fine.

Madeira Cake

(barely adapted from The European Cake Cookbook by Tatyana Nesteruk)

Cake:

1 cup room temperature butter

1 cup sugar

4 eggs

1 cup sour cream

Zest from one lemon

1 3/4 cup flour

1/4 cup almond flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

.

1. Heat the oven to 335ish degrees.  Grease two 8" round cake pans and place parchment circles in the bottoms of each.  

2.  Cream together the butter and sugar.  Add the eggs in, one at a time, beating well after each. Add the sour cream and lemon zest and combine well.

3.  Sift in the flours, baking powder and salt, stirring minimally until just combined.

4.  Divide evenly between the greased pans and bake for 25--35 minutes (mine took just under 25 minutes. But I don't know exactly how hot my oven was).  Cool on a wire rack.

Cake Soak/Candied Lemons:

2 lemons, washed and sliced thinly

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup water

5. Pour the sugar into the center of a large saucepan.  Add the water.  Boil on medium heat until the sugar is dissolved.

6.  Place the lemon slices in the syrup in one layer, cooking until they look translucent (about 3 minutes).  Remove from the syrup and place on a wire rack.  Save the syrup.

7. Pour the syrup over the cooled cakes to soak.

Lemon Icing:

1/4 cup lemon juice

2 cups powdered sugar

8.  Combine the juice and the sugar in a bowl, adding more sugar to adjust the consistency if needed.

Assembly:

9. Pour half of the icing over the bottom layer of cake.  Add the top layer, and pour the rest of the icing on top.  Arrange the candied lemons on top, as desired.  I put a lot, but you could put a few and it would still be beautiful.

10.  Eat ferociously to banish the blahs.