Apologies for the lack of cake plate and shocking lighting - this was pre transport to the in-laws and, well it's February
I have a confession to make. I don't like marmalade. I made ten jars of it yesterday from 3lb of Seville Oranges, and before I went in to hospital I
made another 8 jars from 5 types of citrus fruit I had leftover from Christmas. I know, I know, I need to get out more.
So what do you do when you have 18 jars of marmalade in your pantry and hate the stuff on toast? I mean, I give plenty of it away as thank you gifts, birthday presents, Christmas presents, but my direct family attest they don't like it (or they think I'm rubbish at preserving, I don't know which.) I've thought about selling it, but just wouldn't know how to go about that or what to do. I was planning on sending a jar or two to the
Marmalade Awards, but think i've left it too late, and that would still leave me 16 jars.
First stop was, quite obviously cake. Out came the cookbooks, on went the glasses, and over those the sunglasses (I still have the migraine) and I started to pore. What could I adapt, amend to include marmalade? And then I remembered - well you might too. On my Christmas list was the Great British Bake Off Cookbook. And on my first, swift perusal on Christmas Day afternoon a recipe for a Sticky Marmalade Cake had caught my eye. Bingo!
GBBO inspired Sticky Marmalade Cake
175g softened, unsalted butter
90g Tate and Lyle white Light at Heart white
sugar (I was being experimental so I thought I'd give this a go in another recipe)
3 eggs, beaten
175g self raising flour
pinch
salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
3tbsps Seville Orange Marmalade (I used the
5 fruit marmalade I made back in January - and probably used nearer 4-5 as my spoonfuls were really heaped)
2 tbsps
milk, skimmed as that's what I had - I wouldn't ever go out and buy specific milk for a recipe
Drizzle:
3tbsps Seville Orange Marmalde, warmed through with 1 tbsp water to loosen
Icing:
Couple of tablespoons of glace/ water icing (they're both the same thing, people just call it glace icing if they're being fancy and water icing if they're a Guider)
Butter and flour a cake tin, line the bottom with greaseproof (I forgot) - about 20cm ish
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees
Beat the butter and then the sugar with a mixer until it's light and fluffy
Add the eggs, one at a time, with a spoonful of the flour each time you add an egg. Beat them in thoroughly - the flour will stop your batter curdling
Sift in the rest of the flour, salt and baking powder and
gently fold in with a metal spoon
Add the marmalade and milk and stir again to make sure it's all combined
Bake for about 45 mins
until golden brown - you need it to spring back when you press a finger on it. Don't necessarily worry about the actual time, cooking - a lot of the time is about your senses; touch, taste, smell, sight, sound. Use them, they're better than any timer.
I use a loose bottomed cake tin, as I find that my cakes pop straight out - if you need to you can loosen the cake around the edge of the tin with a knife. If you let the cake cool for about 10-15 minutes in the tin first, it should shrink back from the edges of the tin.
Leave your cake to cool on a wire rack (if you don't have one use the rack from your grillpan) and pierce it lots of times - not right through though, just about halfway - with a skewer
Warm the marmalade with a spoonful of water to loosen it a little. Pour the warmed marmalde over your cake, like you would the drizzle for a lemon (or satsuma) drizzle cake.
Make up your water icing - After years of making it up for Brownies to ice biscuits I don't really have a recipe, I just put a couple of tablespoons of icing sugar into a bowl, and then add about 2 teaspoons of water, and beat it up until I have a consistency I'm happy with. Here, you want it to be flickable/ drizzleable (is that even a word?) Flickable is infinitely more fun, but drizzleable (I'm making it a word) is cleaner. I just flicked the icing over the cake, first one way, then crosswise, then diagonally across. I was quite happy, but stopped before it looked like one of my Brownies had been add it (if you ignore the splodge at 3 o'clock)
This is one of those cakes, that stores brilliantly, as it gets damper day by day the flavours seem to intensify. And even I, a self-confessed marmalade avoider, really like it. What more can you say?
