I would love to be able to do fancy sculptures out of cake but I am not that experienced yet and quite frankly it petrifies me. After watching programs such as Cake Boss and Ace of Cakes, I have a lot of admiration for those guys and completely understand why they are at the top of their game.
I was recently asked if I could do a birthday cake for a 21st, there was no spec, just that it had to be a 9" square Madeira cake, something that I was quite comfortable doing. So I put my thinking cap on and came up with a few ideas. I finally settled on a cake that looked like it was exploding from the inside out and having a fountain candle and sparklers to add to the drama.
I have made Madeira cake quite a few times before, and I think that it is the best type of cake for icing as it is firmer and holds it's shape more. It also doesn't tend to dry out as fast, especially once it has been iced.
Everyone makes Madeira differently, but I have my own tried and tested recipe.
Ingredients
Makes 1x9" square (or 2x7" rounds)
175g Butter
175g Caster sugar
250g Self raising flour
3 eggs
1 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract
Zest of 1/2 a lemon
3 tablespoons of Whole milk
I had to make 2x9" squares, but the only problem was that I only had 1 9" cake tin so had to bake twice. I wasn't really that fussed about doing this as my oven has hot spots and cold spots and when I have baked 2 cakes in the past together they have cooked differently, even though they are the same mixture.
Firstly I creamed together the butter and the sugar until it was ultra smooth. Leaving the butter out the night before so that it gets to room temperature is a great tip. Not only does it make life easier for you with the creaming but the cakes tend to be lighter and moister with warmer butter.
I then added the eggs one at a time mixing them thoroughly in between adding them. Just before I added the 3rd egg I sprinkled in one table spoon of the flour. This stops the mixture from splitting which can be a nightmare if it happens.
Add the vanilla extract and lemon zest and give it a final good mix. I think at the this stage there is no harm in over mixing as you are adding air into the mixture, which in the end, is all good.
Sieve in half of the self raising flour and with a balloon whisk fold into the mixture using a figure of eight movement. Stop when the flour has just been incorporated, then sieve in the remaining flour along with the milk and repeat the figure of eight motion. It is really important to stop as soon as the flour has been incorporated as you don't want to overwork the gluten's in the flour, which can lead to a heavy and dense cake.
You may be thinking why do I use self raising flour instead of plain flour? Well the answer is quite simple, I am lazy and find that self raising works just as well without the need of measuring precise teaspoons of baking powder.
Anyway back to the cake, I lined the tin with greaseproof paper and gently poured in the mixture and smoothed out evenly.
The oven had been pre heated to gas mark 5/180c and in the went the cake on the middle shelf and baked for 45 minutes. after 40 minutes I quickly check to see if the cake was cooked by inserting a skewer and seeing if it comes out clean. It didn't on this occasion (but the second cake did) so I popped it back in for a further 5 minutes.
Once I had removed it from the oven I let it stand for a minute or so in the tin then tipped it out onto a wire rack to cool. Begin cake cake number 2.
To see how I iced the cake then see the second part to my blog.....coming very soon!
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