Marmalade Cake

I was paging through my copy of Nigel Slater’s The Kitchen Diaries the other day, interested to see what he was eating in January during the year he put the book together. One of the very first recipes is for a marmalade cake, and since I had both oranges and marmalade in the house, it seemed like I had to make it. Also, Julie was coming over, and it’s just rude not to have homemade cake around when somebody visits.

Isn’t it, well, kind of perfect? The shape, the icing, everything. It’s such a simple cake compared to some of the birthday and half-birthday cakes I’ve made, but I think it’s just as pretty.
I hadn’t originally realized that the jar of Irish marmalade in my cupboard was ‘Irish’ marmalade — containing whiskey, that is, and tasting quite boozy. I had opened it looking forward to having it on toast, but I quickly realized that wouldn’t be happening, so when I came across this recipe, it seemed like fate. I even had an orange in the fruit bowl, all ready to go.
Of all the ‘celeb’ chefs out there, Nigel Slater is my absolute favourite. I love his writing and his attitude towards food and cooking. His recipes always seem very honest, if you know what I mean. I feel like if I decide to make something from one of his books, it’s sort of guaranteed to work, because there’s nothing fussy about it. Not that it’s all ‘simple’ or ‘basic’; I just feel like he wouldn’t put up with fooling around, including a recipe that wasn’t reliable.
I originally read The Kitchen Diaries over a period of a few days, while in Ireland. I think that might be one of my most fondly remembered holidays — being in wet, old Ireland during the Springtime, with nothing much to do except sit around and read. This photo is one of the images that my screen saver cycles through — it’s from that time in Ireland — and it always makes me smile. That apple and current bread was from a little farmer’s market, and it was absolutely amazing. Just like the marmalade cake.