I have seen recipes for iced citrus Madeira cake on many different web sites over the last year or so. Perhaps this is because it appeared on one of the series of the Great British Bake Off. This particular cake is adapted from a recipe from the BBC food website. I made some changes to it, I reduced the amount of zest that went into the batter and I added orange and lemon juice to the syrup that is poured on the cake prior to icing. This gave the cake a good citrus flavour and also made the cake moister.
Madeira cake is a close textured English cake similar to pound cake. It is traditionally unflavoured or flavoured lightly with lemon and is left unglazed. Originally the cake was served with Madeira wine, a fortified wine, which gave it its name (not because it originated from Madeira, as I had assumed). It is now more commonly eaten with a cup of tea or sometimes with liqueurs. Lots of different flavours of Madeira cake are made, but I love this fresh zesty recipe. I also like the addition of icing, although I know this is far from traditional. However, in my opinion the icing turns a slightly plain cake into something a little more special. The candied peel on top of this cake looks nice but next time I would chop it a little finer as this was a bit too much peel for my liking 
A lot is also written about the need for a crack on the top of a Madeira cake before it can be legitimately be called Madeira cake. I don’t know how true this is but this one certainly had the crack – a great big one running down the middle of the cake. It seemed like a shame to cover it up with icing and candied peel, but without it it felt just a little on the plain side!
This cake can be frozen easily for up to a month. Do not drizzle the cake with the syrup before freezing. Wait for it to cool completely, wrap it in parchment paper, then cling film and place it in a secured freezer bag before freezing.
I hope that you enjoy this traditional English cake
Recipe
Citrus Madeira Cake
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 150 grams (2/3 cup) caster or superfine sugar
- 150 grams (2/3 cup) unsalted butter (softened)
- 200 grams (1 2/3 cups) self raising flour (or use all purpose flour with 2 tsps of baking powder)
- 1 pinch salt
- 3 medium eggs
- zest of 1 orange
- zest of 1 lemon
For the Icing & Decoration
- 1 orange
- 1 lemon
- 75 grams (1/3 cup) caster sugar or superfine sugar
- 150 grams (1 cup) powdered sugar/confectioners sugar/icing sugar
- 75 millilitres (1/3 cup) water
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C / 160°C Fan/ 350°F.
- Grease and line a 2lb loaf tin and set aside
- Place the softened butter and sugar in a bowl. Beat until the mixture is light and fluffy.
- Add one egg at a time to this mixture, beating well between each. If the mixture starts to separate, add a tablespoon of flour before adding the next egg.
- Add the flour, baking powder, salt and zest to the mixture and fold in gently.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared tin and smooth down. Place on the middle shelf of your preheated oven and bake for 50 mins - 1 hour until golden brown. The cake should rise and a crack should appear on the top. Check the cake is cooked by inserting a skewer into the middle - if it comes out clean the cake is done. Set the cake aside, still in its tin whilst you make the sugar syrup and candied peel.
- Using a peeler, cut thin strips of peel from the orange and lemon. Squeeze the juice of the orange and lemon into a separate bowl & set aside.
- Place the water and sugar in a saucepan over a medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Add the rind to the sugar water and bring to a gentle boil. Cook until the rind becomes translucent (approx 5 mins). Remove from the heat. Carefully remove the pieces of peel from the sugar syrup and place on baking parchment on a baking tray. Stir in half of the orange and lemon juice to the sugar syrup (you will use the rest for the icing glaze). To get 'crispy' peel, put the tray of peel in to a warm oven to dry out (I placed mine in the oven whilst it was cooling down from cooking the cake).
- Use a skewer to poke holes over the top of the cake and drizzle the sugar syrup over the top. Leave the cake for 10 minutes before taking it out of the tin and placing on a wire rack to cool.
- Place the powdered sugar into a bowl. Add tablespoons of juice to the sugar one by one until you get a glaze with a soft dripping consistency. Spoon the icing on to the top of the cake and leave to drip down the sides of the cake. Place the citrus candied citrus peel on top to decorate.
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