Sunday, May 15, 2011

Jane Asher's Marmalade Cake



I have previously mentioned my admiration for Jane Asher, a striking titian-haired 1960s actress who was a fashion icon of that period, and who subsequently branched out into many different and successful business ventures. For those who are not familiar with Jane in her 1960s heyday, here is an oft-sighted publicity shot:
MySpace Comments
(Photo courtesy of Butterfunk)

One of Jane's business ventures is Jane Asher's Party Cakes in Kensington, London, which sells cake decorating supplies, and from where you can order fancy decorated cakes. In conjunction with that business, Jane has written a small baking book called Beautiful Baking, which contains 40 of her favourite British classic home recipes.  These baked goods are not the fancy kind you can buy for her shop, but rather, the kind that you may have if you ever dropped in for tea with Jane.

The first recipe that I have chosen to make out of Beautiful Baking is Marmalade Cake.  I am rather a fan of marmalade cake, and although delicious, Nigel Slater's marmalade cake tends to sink deeply in the middle (at least when I make it - and I have made it twice).  This has a nasty impact on the cake's aesthetics.  Accordingly, as Jane's cake seemed to be sink hole free, I was keen to give it a try using my Robertson's Golden Shred Marmalade from Treats from Home.

This cake was plain and simple, yet delicious.  It is not a very tall cake - I used an 8" inch pan, and ended up with a relatively short cake.  Here is my unfrosted cake (with not a crater in sight):



I decided to decorate my cake using leftover icing from the Le Papillon cake, giving me a jaffa cake:




However, you can easily eat this cake plain (I think it would be smashing heated up and served with warm custard for pudding), or decorate it with simple white glace icing, perhaps made with orange juice for some extra orange zing.
To make this cake, you will need:

100g spreadable butter (I used Devondale Light)
75g sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3 tablespoons marmalade
1-2 teaspoons orange zest
150g self raising flour
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon baking powder

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius and grease and line an 8" cake tin.

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until light and creamy.  Add the egg to the mixture, beating continuously.

Using a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, stir the orange zest and marmalade into the cake batter.  Sift the flour and baking powder together in a separate bowl, then fold into the cake batter, together with enough milk to make a thick cake batter.

Spread the cake batter evenly into your prepared cake tin, and bake in your pre-heated oven for around 30 minutes or until cooked through.  Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, before turning onto a wire rack to cool completely. 

18 comments:

Gloria Baker said...

Cake law this Cake look delicious, a nice recipe, gloria

Jennifer said...

This cake looks fab! I love the combo of orange and chocolate!

cocoa and coconut said...

Glad to hear that your marmalade cake didn't sink this time! It looks great. Testing a new recipe for the same cake is sometimes great.

Finla said...

Delicous cake and that topping yummy yumm.

Amanda said...

Mmm, the choc icing would work rather nicely for me, I think.
For some reason my brain is associating Jane Asher with Paul McCartney and the '60's. Any idea where this might be coming from?

Bizzy said...

I love marmalade and often make a glaze from it by boiling it down. I tend to eat lots from the bottle as well. I must try this marmalade cake.

Cakelaw said...

Hi Amanda, Jane was famously Paul's girlfriend for 5 years during the 1960s.

Johanna GGG said...

Jane Asher is indeed eclectic in her career - I have been amazed at seeing her as a baker because it is not the image I had of her - but it seems she has a talent for food - love the sound of marmalade cake with custard

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella said...

I've only tried one of her recipes but I was so impressed with how well it turned out-it was the Delicious Death cake which you put me onto. She really writes recipes so well! :D

Ivy said...

The cake looks delicious and the chocolate ganache makes it even better.

Anonymous said...

The cake look great, but I love the drizzled look of the chocolate more!

Elaine said...

Chocolate and orange marmalade - this looks so good!

Leslie said...

What a glorious cake! That's as perfect as anyone could want for, and the chocolate drizzle is making me hungry!

Anonymous said...

This cake sounds simple to make and delicious. Jane looks even better today than she did in the 60's!

Anonymous said...

Marmalade cake! I am intrigued. Must try soon. Looks lovely.

Jayanthy Kumaran said...

looks beautiful as well as yummy..
new to your space...awesome blog you have with excellent recipe collections..
Am your happy follower now..:)
do stop by mine sometime..

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Event: Letz Relishh Ice Creams

The Caked Crusader said...

I would choose a Jane Asher recipe over a Nigel Slater one any day - glad it worked for you and ended up looking so pretty!

Little Queenies said...

Hi there!
We've started a blogspot for Jane Asher, and we would like if you can link to us or announcing us here.
Thanks so much in advance!
We're the same who run the janeasher.webs.com site and the lovelyjaneasher.tumblr.com blog :)

http://janeasher-source.blogspot.com/