Today was an exciting day for our daughter.  She had the opportunity to be on a local cooking show done by our friend Luca.  It was exciting to watch the process as well.  I have to say I’m a bit envious of her having this chance but more than that I’m very proud of her.  And she had a blast.  When the link to the show is available in about a month I will share it with everyone. 

I can be found occasionally saying to people I take requests for my blog posts.  I say it a lot to my family as it very often sparks ideas and keeps things fresh for me.  Sometimes when it gets crazy busy as it will now with tax season my creativity gets a bit blocked.  So I ask.  And yes someone took me up on that!  Our friends up in Scotland, Dianna and Hugh, mentioned they really like baked goods with cherries along the lines of madeira cake.  Sounds good to me.  🙂

To give you an idea how the cold I had muddled my brain I was thinking I needed to find the wine.  Which obviously I didn’t but man the cold just made me ditzy as can be.  Thank goodness that is passing!  But this cake goes well with the wine, hence the name, but is also a lovely tea cake.  Denser than a Victoria sponge but very light nonetheless.

There are several recipes available for this cake but I chose to follow the one from the BBC.  I added the glacé cherries.  They went very well with the lemony cake.

Preheat the oven to 350F/180C and lightly grease and flour a 8″ cake pan.

Because this is an English recipe it calls for self-raising flour, which I don’t have, so I had to make my own.  There are what seems like a million versions on how to make self-raising flour, all different mind.  Using the dart board method I went with a tsp and a smidge of baking powder and a pinch of salt to the 9oz called for in this recipe.  Definitely weigh the ingredients for this recipe.  Set this aside.

In a mixing bowl cream together 6oz of softened butter and 6oz of sugar.  While that is blending together, take about 3-4oz of glacé cherries and soak them in warm water to get rid of the excess sugar. 

Add 3 eggs one at a time and beat until blended.  As the last egg is being beaten into the mixture slowly add the flour mixture a bit at a time until well blended.  It will be a bit stiff but then add 2-4T of milk one at a time to the mixture.  Depending on your flour you may need to add more milk.  You don’t want it runny but it needs to be smooth enough to slowly fall off the spoon or mixer paddle. 

Take a clean organic lemon and zest it into the the batter.  Be careful you don’t dig into the pith, try to just do the yellow bit, so it’s not bitter but you have a nice bright flavour. 

Drain the cherries and pat dry.

Lightly coat them in flour and add to the mixture.

Spoon out into the baking pan.

This needs to bake 30-40 minutes depending on your oven.  I went the full 40 minutes.  Once it is nice and golden and the toothpick test comes clean remove and let cool for about 10 minutes then turn out onto a cooling rack.

Slice and enjoy.  It’s been a hit as there is only one slice left!  Fortunately it is really easy to make perfect for tea or wine.  Your choice.  🙂