Madeira Cake

Little Miss (she's 8) has been talking about baking a cake on her own for a long time and I always have a reason for not letting her do so. While the idea is great and learning how to bake is practically a given past-time with me as her mum, I think of the possibility of batter in my mixer's engine, eggs in crevices on my scales, the mess and clean-up after. My kitchen, utensils and equipments are spotless and in tip-top condition... In short, I'm a tight-ass with anything to do with my kitchen. Anyway, this Sunday felt like one of those I-don't-care-to-be-prissy days and I told Little Miss that she can bake a simple cake. I picked the first recipe in the book -Nigella Lawson's mother-in-law's Madeira Cake. Madeira Cake historically for me was always a dry cake. Made it a couple of times, always using different recipes thinking that it could be me or a missing link in the ingredients but they were all the same. Dry.

Well, Little Miss got to try this version and she aced the whole process from weighing to pouring the batter into the pan. The cake baked beautifully and rised as photographed in the book. She was awfully pleased and so was I! We decided to let it cool through the night and cut it this morning for breakfast. As you can see, we got good cuts which should mean that the cake isn't too dry. Little Miss and Young Master had a slice each. Little Miss said it was ok (quite softly) while Young Master said out loud that it was too dry. The MOTH kindly said that the taste was nice but too crumbly. As for me, I just made a cup of tea and had a slab. I'm with The MOTH. It tastes good with the tinge of lemon but still too crumbly and dry. Now, to assure Little Miss that that's how Madeira Cakes are and it's got nothing to do with her skills!