Marmalade Bundt Cake

The past few weeks have seen newspapers and media flooding with speculations of the wedding of the century. Did you witness the Royal wedding of William and Kate? I was glued to the television set through the entire afternoon witnessing the ceremony as they celebrated their wedding in pomp and style. And with all that media hype, Britain's royal wedding did capture the attention of billions of viewers all over the world, including me.

Princess Diana was a style icon on the fashion circuit who graced thousands of magazine covers around the world. She was paparazzi's delight for her style and controversial reasons before her death. Now that Kate Middleton is called upon as the Dutchess of Cambridge, it is inevitable that Kate will become a fashion icon who will often be compared to Diana.

I sat through the noon watching the royal wedding live on TV. Prince William is known to have fondness for chocolate biscuit cake. Biscuit cakes happen to be one of my favorites too. On any given day I would love to make this cake. Craving hit me hard as I watched the royal wedding cake brought out for the occasion. I had no cooking chocolate at hand, so making a Chocolate Biscuit cake was out of question. Instead a jar of country Marmalade, imported from Scotland called out to be used, hence sought out for traditional English dessert fit for the occasion. I settled to use a recipe inspired by Nigella's book 'How to be a Domestic Goddess' with certain modifications to the original recipe.

Marmalade Bundt Cake

Inspired by Nigella's book 'How to be a Domestic Goddess'

INGREDIENTS

250 gm self-raising flour*
100 gms caster sugar
125 gms butter (I used low salt butter)
1 drop vanilla extract
100 gms orange marmalade
2 beaten eggs
Zest of 1 orange

DIRECTIONS

Pre-heat the oven at 180˚C oven. Grease with butter and flour a bundt cake tin and keep it aside.

Beat the butter and sugar together till it's fluffy. Add the marmalade and vanilla and stir thoroughly. Add the sifted flour and zest of 1 orange. Stir to combine well and pour the cake batter into a bundt cake tin. Bake in a pre-heated oven for around forty five minutes until golden brown. Test with a skewer. Allow to cool on rack for few mins.

Note: If your recipe calls for self-rising flour and you only have all-purpose, here's how you can make one at home.

Measure the desired amount of flour into a container. For each cup of all-purpose flour, add 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder. Mix to combine.

If your marmalade has less zesty flavor you may increase the amount of orange rind used. The marmalade I used was of excellent quality, had loads of citrus peel, was low on sugar and high on fruit preserves with no added flavors or preservatives. In case you do not have marmalade at hand, you may try the same recipe with any other fruit jam. I suggest you taste your cake batter for sweetness since marmalades and jams have pre-added sugar.

The cake can be served warm and compliments well with tea. The cake turned out excellent with the perfect texture and crumb. The orange rind gives a zesty, refreshing flavor which I highly recommend. This is a rich tea cake with balanced zesty flavors from orange and vanilla tones.