When given a slice of this loaf, you would be convinced that it is a Madeira Loaf. It has that wonderful lemon flavour and the slighter firmer texture (yet melt-in-the-mouth quality) of a Madeira cake. The cream cheese adds a richness to the cake and a slight tang that works perfectly with the lemon rind. You want a Madeira cake to be a firm slab of cake when cut into slices and then slathered with butter. While a soft cake is always desirable, a firm slicing tea loaf is what you really want for tea – one that gets better with each day. This is exactly the kind of cake you can eat everyday and never get tired of.
Ingredients for Cake
- 125 g soft butter
- 125 g full-fat cream cheese, at room temperature
- 3 tsps grated lemon rind
- 1 c caster sugar
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 c self-raising flour
- 1/2 c cake flour
Method to make Cake
- Preheat oven to 160 degrees celsius.
- Grease and line the base of 22cm X 12cm loaf pan with baking paper.
- Add the lemon rind and caster sugar into a medium sized mixing bowl and rub the zest into the caster sugar. This intensifies the lemon flavour.
- Add the reminder of the ingredients and beat slowly at first to combine all the ingredients. About a minute.
- Then turn the beaters to a high speed and beat for about 3 minutes until pale in colour, creamy and smooth in texture. Be sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl during the beating process so that all ingredients are well combined.
- Turn mixture into the prepared loaf pan and smooth batter evenly in pan.
- Bake for 45 – 50 minutes till well risen, golden brown in colour and a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the center of the cake.
- Cool in pan for about 5 -7 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to completely cool.
- Loaf keeps fresh for up to 5 days stored in an airtight container.
