Madeira cake is a

sponge Sponges or sea sponges are primarily marine invertebrates of the animal phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), a basal clade and a sister taxon of the diploblasts. They are sessile filter feeders that are bound to the seabed, and a ...

butter cake A butter cake is a cake in which one of the main ingredients is butter. Butter cake is baked with basic ingredients: butter, sugar, Egg (food), eggs, flour, and leavening agents such as baking powder or baking soda. It is considered one of the q ...

in traditional

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

cookery.

Origin

It is sometimes mistakenly thought to originate from the

Madeira Madeira ( ; ), officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira (), is an autonomous Regions of Portugal, autonomous region of Portugal. It is an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the region of Macaronesia, just under north of ...

Islands but was in fact named after Madeira wine from the islands, popular in England in the mid-1800s and often served with the cake. Madeirans produce their own traditional cake – , dark, spicy and honey-flavoured – which is very different.

Cake

The cake has a firm yet light texture. It is eaten with tea or (occasionally) for breakfast and is traditionally flavoured with lemon. Nowadays, the English Madeira cake is often served with tea or liqueurs. Dating back to an original recipe in the 18th or 19th century, Madeira cake is similar to a

pound cake Pound cake is a type of cake traditionally made with a pound of each of four ingredients: flour, butter, eggs, and sugar. Pound cakes are generally baked in either a loaf pan or a Bundt mold. They are sometimes served either dusted with powd ...

or yellow cake. One of the earliest published recipes was by

Eliza Acton Eliza Acton (17 April 1799 – 13 February 1859) was an English food writer and poet who produced one of Britain's first cookery books aimed at the domestic reader, '' Modern Cookery for Private Families''. The book introduced the now-un ...

in her '' Modern Cookery for Private Families'' (1845):

References

{{English cuisine English cuisine British cakes Cakes