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GBBO inspired Madeira cake

Hello friends,

So this week marks the start of the Great British Bake Off, one of my favourite TV shows! As the show goes on I am going to try my hand at one of the three weekly bakes, and this week it is the classic Madeira cake. On the show one of the contestants decided on a Gin and Tonic inspired cake, so I decided to give it a shot.

The cake on the show used gin in the icing, but having tried this before I know the flavour gets a little lost, so I have used chopped juniper berries in my sponge, giving a subtle gin hint.


Ingredients:

175g butter
175g caster sugar
3 eggs
250g self raising flour
A splash of milk
Zest of 1 lemon
3 teaspoons of chopped juniper berries

For the glaze:
120g icing sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
Juice of 1 orange

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C and line and grease a 900g loaf tin.

In a bowl, cream together the butter and caster sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix then the chopped berries until well combined. 

Add the flour and fold in gently - the consistency should be thick, so that the batter slowly pours off of a spoon. If too thick at this point add the milk so that is loosens a tad. 

Pour into the tin and bake for 45 minutes, checking that a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool on a wire rack.

Whilst cooling, make the citrus glaze. Mix the fruit juices together with the icing sugar and put into the microwave for a minute. Whilst the cake is still in the tin, pour the icing over the top. Allow to set and remove from the tin to cool fully.

 

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