Coffee Cups and Cake

I've been asked by the lovely Wilfing Mum to share the recipe for
orange and sultana cake, one of our favourite bakes, and of course
I'm very happy to. First though I'd like to show you these two
coffee cups that we got as presents for our wedding anniversary
last weekend. Aren't they lovely? I think they're simple but elegant.
They're from David Mellor in Hathersage, a place to go if you like
beautiful and well made cutlery, dinner and kitchenware.
Even if you don't you should still go if only for the scrumptious cakes
 on offer at the cafe and the scenic Derbyshire countryside.
It's really worth a visit.

Now back to the cake. It's Mary Berry's, one of her easy,
mix-everything-in-one-bowl cakes. Very helpful when you're
baking with the kids. It's also delicious, fairly cheap and as it's
a traybake, you can fill up a good sized cake tin easily and be
well supplied with yummy cake for several days.

So here's what you'll need:

225g (8 oz) softened butter
225g (8 oz) caster sugar
275g (10 oz) self-raising flour
2 level teaspoons baking powder
4 large eggs
2 tablespoons milk
275g (10 oz) sultanas (I just use raisins)
grated rind of 2 oranges
demerara sugar, to sprinkle


And here's what you need to do:

Pre-heat oven to 180°C/Fan 160°/Gas 4. Grease a 12 x 9 in) traybake
 or roasting tin then line the base with baking parchment.

Measure all the ingredients except the demerara sugar into a
large bowl and beat until well blended. Turn the mixture into the
prepared tin and level the top.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 25 minutes then sprinkle
the top with demerara sugar and return to the oven for a further
10-15 minutes or until the cake has shrunk from the sides of the tin
and springs back when pressed in the centre with your fingertips.
Leave to cool in the tin, then cut into 21 pieces.

That's it! I usually sprinkle a bit of flour to the raisins so they
won't sink to the bottom of the cake and we like lots of
demerara sugar on top.

I didn't take photos of last week's bake so I've re-posted some
old ones here. Hope you enjoy trying out this recipe. The girls and I
are making Victoria Sandwich Cake this afternoon.


Happy baking everyone!
See you soon!