One of the treats we used to get as children was a Madeira loaf. Actually, it was my father’s treat and we would get whatever he left. He used to buy it at Bon Marche especially the days he worked in Eastlea. I had not thought about it in years until recently. I can not even say what brought in the memories.
The Madeira loaf I remember was soft, perhaps too soft and almost used to crumble quite easily. It was something that I always imagined would be difficult to produce at home. I used to think a lot like this because I did not know anyone who could bake like that personally. In my head, you would need a lot of money for the equipment and ingredients. If you know what you are doing with a few basic ingredients and equipment you can bake a good cake.
I found a recipe on the BBC website and adjusted it to work for me. It uses almond flour which I had for a recipe I worked on last year but it would not break the recipe if you substituted with flour.
Madeira Loaf
Ingredients
- 3/4 cups butter softened, plus extra for greasing
- 3/4 cups golden caster sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 lemon grated zest
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/3 cups self-raising flour
- 1/3 cups almond flour
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 350F. Butter and line the base of a loaf tin with parchment paper. Using an electric whisk, beat together the butter and sugar until light and creamy then beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the lemon zest and vanilla. Now beat in the flour and almond flour until you have a thick batter. The batter should be loose enough that it falls off a wooden spoon, if it’s too thick mix in a splash of milk.
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Tip the batter into the tin and smooth over the top. Bake for 55 minutes – 1 hour until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from the oven then leave to cool for 15 mins then remove from the tin, peel away the paper and leave on a wire rack to cool completely before slicing. The loaf will keep in an airtight container for three days.
