Ginger & Lemon Madeira

Fond as I am of sponge cakes, though I admit it's not that often I make one, a madeira style cake is one you are far more likely to find here when offered a cup of tea. I like to incorporate ground almonds whenever I can, they add to both the flavour and the texture and I believe help the keeping quality of any cake. This cake is subtly flavoured with lemon and ginger, you can always add a little more ginger flavour by adding some ground ginger to the mix.

No 100 in the list of countries, welcome Bangladesh!

No 101, welcome Lebanon!

Amazingly, 3rd new country in a week, Gibraltar, country no 102, welcome!

For this cake you will need;
200g of caster sugar
200g of unsalted butter
3 eggs
150g of ground almonds
110g of  self raising flour
The rind of 2 lemons
4 chunks of ginger in syrup
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt

Heat the oven to 180C and line a large loaf tin, 23cm by 13cm, with baking parchment.
Begin by grinding up the thinly pared lemon rind in the sugar in a food processor, wash and pat dry 4 chunks of ginger in syrup and add them to be ground up along with the sugar and lemon rind. Add the butter and cream the mixture before adding the eggs one at a time, processing in between each egg.  Add the remaining ingredients and process just until you have a cohesive mix. Place the cake batter in the prepared tin and bake for 60 to 65 minutes, or until a wooden skewer comes out cleanly when pushed into the middle of the cake,

Notes:
One of the things I like about cakes such as this and the Orange & Poppy Seed Cake is the fact that you can serve small thin slices, much in the way you might serve petit four.