Nigella's Madeira Cake

I love this cake. It's so easy to make but so luscious. It's like a pound cake but not quiet so heavy. It just sort of melts. It's called Madeira Cake, though I don't know why because it doesn't have a drop of Madeira in it. I got the recipe from Nigella Lawson's How To Be a Domestic Goddess*. Oh, Nigella you are the only true domestic goddess (sorry Martha but paper crafts take second seat to being sexy while making good food).

And remember that black and blue jam/sauce I made last summer? I'm down to the last couple of jars. It was a good jam, my first jam. So it deserves to go out in style. And what better way than poured lovingly all over a yummy piece of this cake? Mmmm. I'm so distracted by wanting to go into the kitchen and have a piece right now that I'm having trouble finishing this post.

I made this cake last night for my husband. It was my way of saying thank you for doing all of the dirty jobs around here that the rest of us don't want to do. Like taking apart the toilet (again) to get out the toothbrush that's clogging up production. If I were single I would probably ignore it until it got so bad that I had to call a plumber because water was overflowing into the kitchen. But thankfully I have a husband who isn't afraid to get his hands dirty. The least I can do is give him a nice slice of cake to look forward to after the work is done and maybe the promise of other sweet things later.


Nigella's Madeira Cake

1 cup softened unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
3 large eggs
1 1/3 cups self-rising cake flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350. Cream butter and 3/4 cup sugar and add the lemon zest. Add the eggs one at a time with a tablespoon of the flour for each. Then gently mix in the rest of the flour and, finally the lemon juice. Pour batter into a prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle with sugar as it goes into the oven and bake for 1 hour or until a cake tester comes out clean. Remove to a wire rack, and let cool in the pan before turning out.

Enjoy!

*If you love to bake, I highly recommend this book. It's full of lovely recipes.