Marmalade Loaf Cake

Don't you just love it when everything falls into place! Ok, I'm not talking about the big things today, but a few things of little consequence that have just aligned perfectly for a Sunday lunchtime. 

Firstly, I have spent the morning cleaning and cooking, as any good Stepford Wife (I wish!) does on a Sunday morning. I prepped several lasagnas for tonight's dinner and the freezer, and then started to clear out the little collection of half used jars from the fridge. Most have been discarded, but I found a nearly full jar of marmalade, still in date. Now we barely ever eat marmalade, however it would be a shame for this to go to waste... the cakey part of my brain kicked in... and I started to google marmalade cake recipes.

I found plenty. I assessed each of them against the contents of my kitchen cupboards and fridge. All of them called for orange zest and juice. I had no oranges. No problem, I assured myself, I'm just going to have to do this 'pantry door style'! (My 'kick at the pantry door' cooking philosophy comes from an old saying of my parents, and basically involves changing recipes and substituting ingredients based on what I have in the house.) 

So after playing with recipes, ingredients and quantities, this is the recipe that was born. It's a simple, tasty tea-loaf, and the perfect accompaniment to a mug of tea on a Sunday afternoon! 

Ingredients:

• 175g unsalted butter
• 175g golden caster sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 150g good quality marmalade
• 175g self raising flour
• 100g icing 
• 2 tbsp lemon juice

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees, and line a standard loaf tin with greaseproof paper.

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat the eggs, and whisk into the mixture a little at a time to prevent it from curdling. Add the marmalade, and whisk again until fully combined. Sift the flour into the bowl, and fold together with a spatula until evenly distributed. 

Transfer the mixture to the loaf tin, and place in the oven. Bake for about 15 minutes at 180 degrees, then turn the oven down to 150 degrees and bake for a further 20 - 25 minutes, until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Check on the cake after the first 30 minutes have passed, and if it looks like it's going a little too dark on the top place a greaseproof paper lid over the top to prevent it from burning. 

Remove the cake from the oven, and place on a cooling rack in the tin to cool. Meanwhile, mix the icing sugar with the lemon juice to form a syrup. Prick holes all over the cake whilst still warm, and pour the syrup over. Leave to cool completely in the tin, then remove and serve. 

The final piece of the puzzle is that I have been getting more involved in the blogging hemisphere over the last few weeks, and have been immersing myself in the wonderful foodie blogs of others. I have noticed several blogging challenges, and have been deliberating over which recipes to enter into which challenges. This Marmalade Tea Loaf has leaped out of nowhere, and fits the criteria for this month's Tea Time Treats challenge's theme of Citrus. 

Tea Time Treat's is run monthly by Karen at Lavender and Lovage, and Kate at What Kate Bakes. This month it's being hosted by Karen. And the entry cut-off date is the 28th of each month... guess what - it's the 27th! See -it's all come together perfectly! 

So I give you my first ever blogging challenge entry - Marmalade Loaf Cake! Happy Sunday Everyone!