Madeira Cake (Butter/Pound Cake)

It has been quite a while that the same picture stares at you whenever you visit this blog. The only consolation was that it was Ras Malai :)

The past couple of weeks have been very hectic, more than the usual that is. The daughter turned 3 years and it was like a week long celebration with 2 parties & the whole time went in planning & executing them. But S was very happy & still keeps talking about how much she enjoyed everything, so it was worth while.

This Birthday also saw me baking the Birthday cake. I do bake cakes & other stuff at home, but I had never ventured into making a Birthday cake as big as this one – to serve 40 people. I was very glad that it turned out great & was even more happy to receive compliments! 

Having said all that I am not presenting that cake in this post. I feel that when it comes to cakes, I should first mention the one that got me started and then slowly graduate to the more elaborate stuff :)

This is the cake which has endured all my baking trial & errors. I started to bake with this one and after having had some bad & not so bad results I can easily say that I have perfected it now. From preparing for the whole day to taking just 15 min to put the cake into oven, I have come a long way, almost 3 years!

I remember I used to feel nervous for the first 3-4 times that I put this cake into the oven, wondering if it will turn out good this time. I could barely hold myself from taking it out and having a look again & again – now that definitely spoils your cake!

Although it has been a while since I wanted to post this here, I always forgot to photograph it every time I made. By the time I remembered it would be too late i.e. the cake would have been long devoured. Even this time I can easily say that the cake is far more delicious than the photo gives credit, I guess my trials & errors on that front (the pics) will have to continue a lot more. But really I am a great fan of this cake & GM is a bigger fan. He wants me to make this everytime I am thinking of baking something.

Butter Cake (Madeira Cake)

Ingredients
2 Cups All Purpose flour (Maida)
2 Eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Milk
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt

Method:

Pre Heat the oven to 180 deg C. Grease & flour a 9 inch round cake tin and keep ready.

In a bowl, combine the butter & sugar. beat them together until light & fluffy using an electric mixer or with a whisk.

Sieve together the flour, Baking Powder & salt and keep aside.

Add the eggs and beat until fully incorporated. Add the vanilla extract & beat for another minute.

Now add the 1/3 of the flour mixture & beat on gently to combine. Add half the milk and mix until blended. Add the next 1/3 of the flour & continue as earlier with the remaining milk.

Finally add the remaining 1/3 flour and beat till combined. Scrape the sides of the bowl to ensure that all the ingredients are mixed together.

Pour the batter into the prepared Cake tin and bake in the oven for about 30 minutes. Ti check if the cake is done, insert a sharp knife in the centre of the cake & if it comes out clean without any batter clinging to it, then it is all done.



Tale it out of the oven & let it cool in the tin for sometime before turning it over on a rack to cool down completely.

If it doesn't get over immediately, store in an air tight container. This stays well for about 3-4 days.

My Notes:

Although I have mentioned a round tin to be used,I have earlier made this as a loaf & also a square cake. Make sure to use a pan equivalent in terms of volume. This time I baked it in a smaller round tin and also made 2 tiny ones.

I generally use salted butter instead of adding extra salt. The sugar can be adjusted as per your taste but the above quantity yields a cake which is not too sweet but just the way we like it.

I can easily say that this is a tried & tested recipe and never fails me. Of course I arrived at it after a lot of trials as I have mentioned earlier in the post.