Please provide a recipe for a large plain cake?!

Madeira Cake....8ozs SR flour.....1/4tsp salt....4ozs butter.....5ozs castor sugar.....2 eggs few drops vanilla essence......approx 3tbs milk.....optional for top citron slices. Method as for regular sponge cake then spoon mixture into 6inch lined round cake tin and cook in centre of oven 350F or gas 4 for one hour.Allow to cool 5 mins remove from tin,and leave on wire tray till cold.....Enjoy !!

ok, I love to bake, and I know what you mean when you want simple cake fast! my own recipe is below, and can be used with any measuring system...

foolproof cake

nothing is simpler than this cake recipe, and it's never gone wrong for me - whether it's a simple round sponge or a four layer chocolate extravaganza, this recipe will never fail! the easiest thing is that you don't need to learn the quantities, you simply weigh your eggs and then measure out the same amounts of flour, sugar & butter - easy!

what you need for a simple round cake...

3 eggs (to make bigger or smaller cake just change number of eggs!)
self raising flour (same weight as eggs)
caster sugar (same weight as eggs)
margarine (same weight as eggs)

IF you are making a chocolate cake, replace 50g of the flour with 50g cocoa powder
before you start preheat the oven to 175 degrees!

firstly, add the sugar and margarine into a large mixing bowl - I prefer margarine to real butter because it tends to keep the cakes extra light and fluffy! next you need to mix them up, so whilst I prefer to use a hand held electric whisk, you can use a food mixer, normal whisk or just a spoon - whisk until smooth and creamy with no lumps (looking something like the picture to the left!) at this point it should taste beautifully sugary, so maybe give it a quick taste! leave the whisk in the bowl, you need it for step two.

ok, make sure you concentrate now or this bit will all go wrong! first of all you need to add one egg along with one huge spoonful of the flour (or flour/cocoa powder mix if you're doing chocolate cake!) whisk this up wih your electric whisk, and repeat with each of your eggs - don't worry you should have flour left at the end of this stage, keep it safe for step number three!

right, so now you need to use a bit of baking skill and start folding in the remaining flour! put away the electric whisk, you won't need it any more! take a wooden spoon and tip all the flour into the bowl - next you need to simply fold in the flour, if you don't know how to do this simply divide down the middle with the spoon and fold over the mix! after a bit of folding, simply mix it very gently for a bit until it looks perfect!

now it's all mixed up, use a spatula to get all of the mix into a well greased cake tin, and pop it into the oven at 175 degrees, following the timings below & don't take them out early or they'll sink! (please bare in mind that my timings are for an electric fan oven!)
normal cupcakes - 12 minutes
mini cupcakes - 8 minutes
round sponge cake - 18 minutes
any sized cake that's bigger or smaller, just use your best judgement and test by sticking a sharp knife in the centre of the cake - if it comes out clean then the cake's done!

when you take the cakes out the oven, leave them for a couple of minutes before popping onto a wire baking rack to cool. when they are cool to touch, put in an airtight box or decorate immediately, don't leave them out to go dry! to make a quick buttercream simply mix margerine and icing sugar until you achieve desired consistency - a spoonful of cocoa powder should make it beautifully chocolatey! my favourite decorations include mini smarties & marshmallows, star shaped sprinkles, chocolate chunks & chips and lots of edible glitter!


I know it's a bit lengthy but it never fails, and is so simple to follow!

please check out the other recipes on my website www.cakestop.weebly.com - including this cake recipe with pictures!

thank you!

www.cakestop.weebly.com

This free 88 page pdf on cooking mastery may help you.

http://bit.ly/eG1eA1