The perfect madeira cake!

I adapted this marvellousrecipe for an 8" round Madeira cake from lindyscakes.co.uk....

Ingredients:

12 oz Stork

12 oz golden caster sugar

12oz self raising flour

6 oz plain flour

6 large eggs

2 lemons - zest only

Method:

1. Line an 8 inch round springform tin with baking paper and cover the ourside of the tin with four of five layers of newspaper. This will stop the outsides of the cake from cooking too fast, and will help your cake to rise nice and even on top, instead of being domed.

2. Cream together the Stork and the sugar until nice and light and creamy.

3. Add in the beaten eggs, one at a time with just as much flour as you need to stop it curdling (as little as possible).

4. Mix in the flour and the lemon zest. Don't worry if the mixture is gloopier than you are used to - it's supposed to be quite thick and stodgy.

5. Transfer into your baking tin, but scoop the middle of the mixture completely out, so that the mixture is sitting in a doughnut shape in the tin.

6. Pop into a preheated oven at 160 degrees Celsius, with a baking tray on the shelf above to protect it from too much heat. Put a bowl of water on the floor of the over so that the cake comes out nice and moist. Bake for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours.

To decorate:

Ingredients:

half a jar of strawberry jam

one batch of lemon buttercream icing (use about1/2 to 3/4 block of unsalted butter)

500g ready-to-roll icing

various food colourings and cake decorations, to your preference

Method:

1. When the cake has completely cooled, cut in half and spread about a third of the strawberry jam on the top of the bottom slice. This will be easier if you boil the jam first, then allow it to cool slightly.

2. Spread the buttercream icing on top of this and andwich the cake halves together.

3. Roll out the icing as per the packet instructions, into a ice big circle.

4. Cover the whole of the cake in a very thin layer of jam, for the icing to stick to. Then use a rolling pin to lift the icing over the cake. Starting from the middle of the top, press the icing down and secure to the sides.

5. Decorate the cake as per your preference. I used pearl dragees, small sugar butterflies, and I also made butterflies and roses from icing dyed pink. The roses are pretty easy to make - cut a piece of icing about 1-2cm wide and 8-10cm long, and wind it into a rose shape, nipping the bottom together. You can stick this to the cake using water or edible glue.

Enjoy with a lovely pot of tea!