madeira cake

Nigella Lawson’s selected Madeira cake is a golden-yellow loaf with a long crack along its top. Lemon zest and juice season a butter-and-egg cake, while a sprinkling of caster sugar finishes its surface.

Softened unsalted butter and caster sugar are creamed together before grated lemon zest is added. Three eggs enter one at a time, each accompanied by a spoonful of flour.

Self-raising flour and plain flour share the mixture. The remaining flour is folded in gently, followed by the lemon juice, giving the loaf both parts of the lemon’s flavour.

The mixture goes into a buttered, lined loaf tin and receives its caster-sugar sprinkling before baking. A cake tester checks the centre, and the baked cake cools in the tin on a rack before being turned out.

Lawson credits her mother-in-law Carrie with giving her this recipe and recalls its familiar loaf shape with affection. The selected version keeps lemon as its seasoning and the sugared, cracked top as its distinctive finish.