Soaked Marmalade Loaf Cake

Jassy Davis Gin and Crumpets is a freelance food writer and recipe developer. Her food blog, ginandcrumpets.com is updated regularly with new recipes. She is also the co-author of ‘The Contented Calf Cookbook’ which was published last year.

True to form, I’ve turned the marmalade into a cake. I don’t think there’s a glut that I can’t solve with butter, eggs and flour. You can use whatever flavour of marmalade you have, just adjust the fruit juice you use to make the syrup. The syrup and the marmalade make the cake moist and it will keep for a couple of days, although the syrup will begin to pool at the bottom of the cake and viciously stick it to the plate if you leave it too long.

Soaked marmalade loaf cake
Serves 8-10

175g butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
260g caster sugar
3 medium eggs
130g fine shred marmalade
175g self raising flour
1 lemon and 1 lime (see note below)

1 Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180°C/fan oven 160°C. Grease a 900g loaf tin with butter and line the base with baking parchment.

2 Beat the butter with 175g caster sugar until fluffy and combined. Beat in the eggs, 1 at a time, then beat in the marmalade. Sift in the flour and stir to combine. Spoon the batter into the cake tin, level the top with the back of your spoon and bake for 35–40 minutes until firm and risen to the touch. Cover with baking parchment if it begins to brown too quickly on top (like mine).

3 Juice the lemon and lime and mix the remaining sugar with the juice. Prick the cake all over and pour over the sweetened juice. Leave to cool completely in the tin. Serve in slices.

* If you’re using orange marmalade, dissolve the sugar in the juice of 1 orange. If you’re using lemon marmalade, dissolve it in the juice of 11/2 lemons and use the juice of 2 limes if you’re using lime marmalade.