Orange Madeira Loaf Cake

It's been a hectic few weeks and I've abandoned the blogosphere since the New Baby Cake which kind of took it out of me to be honest! Anyway, I finally found time to get back in the kitchen and made something considerably less complicated yet utterly delicious. It's a Rachel Allen recipe from her Home Cooking book which I love, I've mentioned it in previous blog posts and really rely on it as a go-to whenever I'm lacking in inspiration; in fact, it is probably second only to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Everyday book in terms of how often it gets used at Colehill Kitchen.

This time it was a lovely warming orange loaf cake, perfect now that the weather is cooling off, but not in the realms of dense wintery fruit or chocolate cakes. It's a nice change from the traditional lemon drizzle cake, but no less delicious.

Orange Cake

175g butter, softened

175g caster sugar

3 eggs

Zest of 2 oranges

225g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

4 tsp freshly squeezed orange juice

Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. I used part golden caster sugar and part normal caster sugar, but it's entirely up to you!

Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each one, then add the orange zest.

Sift the flour and baking powder then fold in with the juice, stopping as soon as all the flour is combined.

Transfer into a greased and lined loaf tin, then smoth out the top.

Bake in the oven at 170 degrees for 50-55 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.

Allow to cool on a wire rack.

The icing in particular went down a storm, which was simply 75g icing sugar and 2-3 tbsp of freshly squeezed orange juice. Combine the juice with the icing sugar gradually until it is soft but not runny, then spoon over the cake.


Slice and enjoy with a cuppa for the perfect afternoon tea!

Super Moist Lemon Drizzle Cake

After that monstrous chocolate fix, I felt something lighter was in order, and my sparkly new loaf tin that I used for the banana bread was being severely underused, so I settled on this lemon drizzle cake (or lemon trickle cake as Hugh calls it.) it looks beautiful baked in a loaf tin (and somehow seems less bad for me than if it was a round cake shape!!), and it made me pine after some mini loaf tins so that I can make individual little lemon loaves, or carrot cake loaves, fruit loaves...the possibilities are endless! I just love the idea of individual little portions, it seems so much more special than a boring old slice...maybe it’s just me being odd though!!

Anyway, back to the loaf at hand. Another one of Hugh’s lovely recipes from his Everyday cookbook, this was easy to make (Mr. Colehill barely noticed it was being made, THAT is how quick and easy it is: a man who loves food, particularly cake, didn’t notice a cake being made!) and it’s one of those beauties of a recipe where you are almost certainly going to have everything you need already in the house. I swear I’m going to make my way through that book at warp speed; whatever I’m looking for, I seem to find it in there, and the recipes always turn out wonderfully. Buy it buy it buy it!!

Anyway, here is the recipe

Lemon Trickle Cake
175g softened butter

175g caster sugar

zest 3 lemons

3 medium eggs

175g self raising flour

pinch salt

splash of milk (optional)

Lemon Icing
75ml lemon juice

200g icing sugar

Beat the butter, sugar and zest until pale and fluffy, the add the eggs one at a time, alternating with a spoonful of flour per egg to stop curdling, then add the rest of the flour.

The mix should drop off a spoon easily with a little tap, if it’s a little stiff, add a splash of milk to loosen it.

Pour into a lined loaf tin and bake at 180 degrees for 30-40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Meanwhile to make the syrup, squeeze the zested lemons until you have 75ml of juice, then gradually whisk in the icing sugar.

When the cake is done, remove from the oven and pierce it deeply several times with a skewer (although not right down to the bottom) before pouring over the icing.

Leave to cool completely before removing from the tin.

The trick for this recipe is to beat the sugar and butter until either your arms just can’t take any more (if you are doing it by hand) or you are bored to tears (if you are using an electric whisk). The longer you beat and the paler and fluffier the butter and sugar become, the lighter your cake will end up being. This is something you definitely want: the combination of light sponge with the softness and moist texture from the icing is utterly divine.

This is a great afternoon tea cake, a lovely alternative to heavier flavours like chocolate or carrot. The lack of a heavy frosting is also refreshing, although I love a good helping of buttercream this cake really didn’t need anything like that to overpower it; the subtle lemony flavour and light sponge were elegant and delicate and deserve to be sitting on a dainty little plate next to a bone china teacup!!


I hope you enjoy this recipe, it really is a lovely one and I thoroughly recommend it; it may not look like much, but its testimony is in the tasting!!