This marmalade cake is already on here from some years ago although this time round I have tweaked the recipe to take into account not having all the right ingredients during lockdown and used a bundt cake tin for an even bake.

If you could see my store cupboard you probably wouldn’t believe that I was short of anything and it’s not through panic buying, it’s because I buy in bulk wherever I can but living with somebody who doesn’t eat carbs has meant that I haven’t replenished things like icing sugar as I’ve used it up.  I also don’t use margarine unless I’m baking and hadn’t actually intended to be making cakes right now but I was baking for family who aren’t able to get out and for whom I was dropping in essentials too – so this time it’s all butter, not half and half.

I also had self-raising sponge flour which was open and needed to be used up whereas the pack of plain flour I have is tightly sealed.   I think it gives the cake a slightly lighter texture so think I will use it again.  You can though use plain flour and a heaped teaspoon of baking powder.  I’ve not tried it with general purpose self-raising flour but I can’t see why it wouldn’t work.  I’ve adjusted the recipe to take account of making it in a stand mixer rather than a food processor – revert to the method used in the original recipe if you don’t have a hand or stand mixer though.

For the sugar – I would usually use caster sugar but only had granulated.  I’m not sure that granulated would really work for this so instead, I used my mini-food processor and ground the granulated into my own caster sugar consistency.  I’ve had that since Izzy was tiny for making up babyfood mush (which she never wanted to eat) and still use it a lot for making up hummus.   In the original recipe I used icing sugar for the drizzle and it occurred to me that there was absolutely no point when I was going to be dissolving it anyway.  I was conscious that there was probably more sugar in a tablespoon of icing sugar than granulated so thought I might need to adjust but it was actually fine with just 4 tablespoons.

Ingredients

For the cakes:

150g butter, at room temperature

150g caster sugar (or 150g granulated sugar, ground for about 30 secs)

250g self-raising sponge flour

3 eggs, beaten

3 tablespoons orange marmalade

Zest of 1 orange

For the drizzle:

15g butter

Juice of 1 orange

4 tablespoons granulated sugar

Method

• Pre-heat the oven to 160C and grease an eight inch bundt tin.
• Put the butter and sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer with the beating attachment and whisk until creamed.
• Beat in the marmalade and orange zest.
• Add a tablespoon of the sifted flour (this will stop the eggs curdling) and mix.
• Mix in the eggs and continue to mix until the whole mixture is really creamy and fluffy – it will lighten in colour.
• Add the sifted flour and mix in until it is just combined – you don’t want to over mix once the flour is in or you’ll get a tough cake.
• Use a silicone spatula or spoon to make sure that everything is mixed together where the beater can’t reach and then spoon into the bundt tin.
• Bake for 45 minutes or until a cocktail stick inserted into the centre of the cake comes away clean.
• Remove from the tin and leave to cool.
• Melt the butter for the drizzle in a small pan with the orange juice and gradually add in the icing sugar, stirring until it is all dissolved.  Simmer until the mix has reduced by about a third and thickened.
• Wash out the tin and dry and once the cake has cooled put it back in the tin (it stops the drizzle going all over the work top – voice of experience moment!)
• Poke holes in the top of the cake with the cocktail stick and then spoon the drizzle over, allowing the drizzle to thoroughly soak into the cake.
• Slice and serve!