the 2013 marmalade post

Lenten Marmalade Cake

There was an issue with the marmalade last year, you may recall.  It would not set.  Margaret Patten had warned me about this - test early for the setting point because if you miss it you can boil it forever and it just won't happen. There may have been other reasons, but let's not go there.  So in the cellar there remains a substantial amount of last year's marmalade and while it occasionally finds it way into  marinades or sauces, stirred into plain yoghurt, or tipped onto ice cream, the best use we have found for it is cake. Dan Lepard has one, and Nigel, and the  Bake Off but I've yet to try these because the easiest one to find in the kitchen cupboard is Delia's recipe.  A simple recipe producing a smallish loaf cake, a cake with a slightly bitter note, most apt for those of us who are eschewing total Lenten abstinence.

In case you are wondering what has happened this year, well, I left the oranges down in the cellar for a couple of weeks then thought I ought really to face my demons and get on with it.  I picked out the speckiest specimens, boiled the rest, left them to cool in the garden while I watched the end of Silent Witness, wiped away my tears while we chopped the rind and boiled the pips, then with the fruit in the pan and the sugar gently added I turned up the gas, watched and waited, waited and watched, whispered some invocations, tested and tested again with thermometer and frozen saucers, ladled into the jars.  It was gone midnight by then, so I went to bed.

Chunky Marmalade 2013

And it was fine, all eleven jars.  Yes, there will be toast and cake, and even more cake. 

Wholemeal Marmalade Cake

*225g wholemeal flour; 3 level tsps of baking powder; 110g soft brown sugar - Mix together
*110g soft margarine - Rub into the flour/sugar mixture until it resembles breadcrumbs
*grated rind from half a lemon and half an orange (or more according to taste), 1 tsp mixed spice, 110g mixed dried fruit (with cranberries if poss)  - Add to rubbed in mixture
* 150ml of milk, 1 tsp cider/wine  vinegar - Add milk gradually until mixed in, then add vinegar
* Rounded tbsp of orange marmalade - Mix in

Pour into greased loaf tin (19x9 cm) and bake at 180C (170C fan) for one and a quarter hours or so. Leave to cool in tin for 10 mins.  Brush with warmed marmalade, orange shred removed and used to decorate if wished. Leave for a day or two before cutting.

Well, surely you didn't expect immediate gratification at this time of year.