Sticky Orange Marmalade Cake

Another cake from The Great British Bake Off How to Bake Book, is ready for the long weekend.  This was fun to make, and came out very well, tasty with a lovely texture. 

First hubby and I had fun and games over the butter.  I kept leaving it out of the fridge to come to room temperature, and he the consummate tidier upper kept putting it back.  This happened all day Saturday, and when I went down very early on Sunday, whilst he was still in bed, it was back in the fridge!  We do talk really, but obviously I had not said why I was leaving the butter out of the fridge.  I  keep the eggs I need for baking out of sight in the cupboard, and next time, I shall put the butter next to them!

I tried to catch some of the tips Mary Berry was giving on Chris Evan's Radio 2 morning show, whilst trying to get H's packed lunch made, and caught some.  As I was lining my cake tin which must be over 25 years old, I was wondering why my cakes more often than not peak and crack in the middle, and remembered what Mary said on this topic:  it could be that the cake was cooked too high up in the oven, and she said that the right sized tin must be used.  I decided to move the oven rack down one, and then measured my tin.  The tin which I thought was an 8inch was smaller, it was 7inches, which explains the shape of my cakes.....All these years I thought my tin was an 8 inch one!

Never mind, another excuse to buy another Kitchen Toy!  In the meantime, I decided to reduce the mixture and hurrah...the cake came out perfectly.  One of the small ones was taken on a picnic, and the second one halved, warmed, and served with custard for pudding after our roast yesterday.

After brushing with extra warmed marmalade, I decided not to add the icing, as it occurred to me when I was weighing out the cake, just how much sugar we were having.  I love the flavour, which is rich and deep, but H's taste buds which are not quite as keen as mine for bitter flavours thought that the cake needed the icing.  One of the reasons I opt more frequently for buns rather than cakes, is that usually the ratio of butter and sugar is so much less.  I shall try this again another time using my lime marmalade.

As we use Goat's butter, and unsalted is not available, I use salted butter.  I wonder how using unsalted butter in baking differs from using salted butter?  Obviously I do not add the pinch of salt given in the recipe.