Madeira Cake and "The Perennial Tea Room"

Wandering early morning in the Pike Place Market is a ritual. In the early morning the market is at its best. The venders  are just setting up and the crowds are not there. In a little nook there is a tea shop called the Perennial Tea Room. I was buying some Keemun tea when I noticed a tea cook book. It was written by Anthony Wild. He is from Yorkshire and the buying agent for his sisters company. The company is Taylor's of Harrogate the famous tea company.

Spending time in the company of East Indians you will come to love high tea. The book has recipes for all the necessities for a high tea. Like Tinker's Cakes, Barm Brack and even Fat Rascals. The Madeira cake looked especially good. It is a sugar crusted cake soaked in lemon syrup. There is not a drop of Madeira in the cake. It was meant to be eaten with a glass of Madeira in the 18th century.



The cake is very easy to make. You will need to preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a mixer you will place:

1cup plus two tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup of sugar

Beat until it is light and fluffy. Now add five eggs one at at time. Then sift 2 1/2 cups of cake flour with 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt and two teaspoons baking powder. Gradually add to you batter. Then place the mixed batter into a prepared loaf pan.

Bake for one and one quarter hours. For the syrup heat 4 tablespoon of lemon juice, two tablespoon of sugar and one tablespoon of light corn syrup. Skewer the warm cake all over and pour the warm syrup over the still warm cake in its tin. Chill the cake to form the sugar crust.

I may try the courgette and double ginger cake next. It has been very warm here in Seattle and a lot of us will have plenty of courgettes ! The blossoms are so lovely. They make a nice complement to cheese ravioli with lemon.