This is a basic madeira cake recipe that never fails to be perfect with a cuppa. As I’m such a huge lemon fan and had a punnet of blueberries in the fridge, I decided to add these in for a little change to the plain madeira recipe. I also had one tub of Philadelphia Cream Cheese in the fridge which was going to run out of date, so that became the icing.

Definitely worth making this cake. It’s a perfect tea time treat, a lovely birthday cake and great to bring to someone’s house as a gift. If you don’t want to have a Cream Cheese Frosting, just make up icing using Icing Sugar and a little water or lemon juice and once the cake is cool, drizzle this over the top.

Ingredients:

• 175g butter, softened
• 175g caster sugar
• 3 medium eggs
• 250g self-raising flour
• Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
• Approx 125g blueberries (to your taste)
• For the Frosting: 200g Philadelphia Full Fat Cream Cheese and 6 tbsp. Icing Sugar. (Take the Philadelphia out of the fridge at the start of your baking so it’s soft to work with when the cake is ready to be iced)

You need an 18cm (7in) round spring form cake tin, greased and lined with baking parchment.

Preheat oven to 180C / 350F or Gas 4. My oven is a little hot so I set it at 170C.

Method:

Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, adding a spoonful of flour with each egg.

 

Fold in the lemon zest and juice and the remaining flour. If the blueberries are quite large, cut them in half and dredge them in flour so you have an even dispersion of them throughout the cake. Cutting the larger ones will also prevent them from sinking to the bottom. Fold them in gently using a large metal spoon.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and level the surface. Bake in the center of the oven for approx 1 hour.

Bake until it’s just firm to the touch in the centre and a skewer comes out clean after being inserted into the middle.

Take out of the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 10-15 mins. Transfer from the tin to a wire rack to cool completely. Don’t be in a hurry to take it out of the tin as it will crack or break.

To make the Cream Cheese Frosting, I used 200g of Philadelphia Full Fat Cream Cheese and added about 6 tablespoons of Icing Sugar. You can add less depending on your personal taste. I also added 1 teaspoon of lemon juice and beat it together with a wooden spoon till it was creamy.

You can decorate with pansies, blueberries, lemon slices, grated lemon peel … whatever looks good and to suit your occasion.

Bake with love

Soraya x