Madeira Loaf Cake

The Great British Bake Off is back! Wednesday nights are now strictly reserved for watching the Bake Off. I've always wanted to bake along with the bake off but never really found the time. I will try my best this year but I will probably only manage cake and biscuits! Sadly, my oven has died so I'm not even sure if I can bake biscuits next week. I do have a top oven/grill but it's nowhere as good as my regular oven. Anyway this loaf is inspired by the first episode of the Bake Off. Can you believe this is only the second time in my life that I've baked a madeira cake? I used a Mary Berry recipe (of course) and the cake turned out beautifully. It has two cracks and a dome! Hurrah! However, I didn't have time to make a glaze or any fancy decorations but the cake held it's own. It had a light, lovely crumb and the hint of lemon really lifts the cake. 

 ready to go in the oven 

 two cracks and a dome!

175g butter
175g caster sugar
225g self raising flour
3 eggs
finely grated rind of 1 lemon

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Mix all the ingredients in a bowl until smooth.
• Pour into a large loaf tin and level the top.
• Bake in the pre heated oven for about an hour. The cake is done when a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 

Chocolate Aubergine Cake

Yes you read the title correctly. The main ingredient in this cake is aubergine! I've baked with vegetables before mostly carrot, courgette, parsnip and beetroot but I've never tried using aubergine. I got the recipe from Red Velvet Chocolate Heartache which is a lovely book by Harry Eastwood. She writes beautifully and the recipes are naturally gluten free. She uses vegetables and a combination of ground almonds and/or rice flour which makes the cakes healthier. This replaces the usual butter and sugar that goes in cakes. I really liked the title of this cake which is Chocolate heartache. I decided I had to bake it as it's named in the title of the book. Plus I was looking for a gluten free cake that contained chocolate for a celebration. The cake was really dense and chocolatey and you definitely can't taste the aubergine in the cake. Everyone could not believe that the cake was gluten free and contained vegetables! The cake was so good I baked it twice in the same week. The first time I made a simple chocolate icing to go on top but felt it was a little too rich to go with the already rich cake. The second time I covered the cake with fat free greek yoghurt and that worked really well as it helped to cut through the denseness of the cake. 

I'm sending this to a few blog challenges this month. Tea Time Treats hosted by Karen from Lavender and Lovage and Jane from The Hedgecombers. The theme this month is chocolate. 

Extra Veg hosted this month by Jo from Jo's Kitchen on behalf of Helen from Fuss Free Flavours and Michelle from Utterly Scrummy Food For Families. This cake is definitely a sneaky way to get extra veg into your diet!

Recipe of the week hosted by Emily from A Mummy Too.

Cook Blog Share hosted by Lucy from Supergolden Bakes.

Tasty Tuesdays guest hosted by Mel from Le Coin De Mel on behalf of  Vicki from Honest Mum.

Bake of the week hosted by Helen from Casa Costello

 baking powder, cocoa powder, ground almonds, honey, dark chocolate, eggs and aubergine. 

 cook the aubergine in the microwave then peel off the skin and puree the aubergine in a food processor. Add dark chocolate and allow to melt or  blitz gently until mixed. 

 adding the chocolate aubergine paste to the remaining ingredients

 ready to bake 

 a lovely chocolatey fudgy cake 

 with chocolate icing 

 with fat free greek yoghurt 

Recipe is from Red Velvet Chocolate Heartache by Harry Eastwood. If you click on the amazon link, you can 'look inside' the book. The recipe is available to view online. If I get permission from the publisher then I will publish the recipe here.