As delicious as chocolate, carrot, and coffee cakes are, sometimes you can’t beat a plain sponge cake.
Instead of using a Victoria sponge cake recipe, British chef James Martin recommends a more refreshing bake: Madeira cake.
This simple sponge is typically free from heavy buttercream fillings and icing layers but has a denser sponge than its Victorian counterparts.
It’s still refreshingly light in texture, much more so than pound cake. This is due to the recipe’s higher flour-to-butter and sugar ratio.
Sharing his Madeira cake formula on the BBC show Castle in the Country, James described it as a “buttery” afternoon treat – perfect with a cup of tea.
Aside from its simplicity, the best thing about this recipe is that it is incredibly easy to memorise. It uses the core sponge cake ingredients in most British recipes—eggs, butter, flour, and sugar—and adds lemon for a zesty edge.
While James, who presents his hit show James Martin’s Saturday Morning, calls for candied lemon peel, the decorative element is open to interpretation.
Fresh lemon peel is fine to use but it won’t keep for very long, so it’s best removed when you go to store the cake.
Madeira cake recipe
Ingredients
175g/6oz butter, at room temperature
175g/6oz caster sugar
Three free-range eggs
250g/9oz self-raising flour
Two to three tbsp milk
One lemon, zest only
One to two thin pieces of candied citron or lemon peel, to decorate
How to make Madeira cake
Start by preheating the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Then, grease a round cake tin (18cm/7in) with a little butter. Next, line the base with greaseproof paper and grease the paper on top for extra protection against sticking.
Take a large mixing bowl and add the butter and sugar. Take a wooden spoon or electric whisk and cream the two together until they form a pale and fluffy mixture.
Whisk the eggs in a jug or cup and add them a little at a time to the creamed mixture. Beat well between each addition, then add one tablespoon of the weighed flour to the last egg to prevent the mixture from curdling.
Sift the flour and gently fold it into the cake mixture. Add the milk gradually until the mixture falls slowly from the spoon. Finally, fold in the lemon zest.
Once the mixture has been prepared, carefully spoon it into the prepared tin and lightly level the top. Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until golden-brown on top and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Remove the finished cake from the oven and set aside to cool in the tin for 10 minutes. Then, turn it out onto a wire rack and leave it to cool completely.
