4oz finely grated fresh Beetroot (if using COOKED Beetroot, use 8oz and finely grate it or puree it to a paste)
2 tablespoons of milk
5 fluid oz vegetable oil
6oz plain flour
One teaspoon baking powder
2 rounded tablespoons of cocoa powder (or drinking chocolate or half & half)
One teaspoon vanilla flavouring or essence
7oz sugar (caster preferably but it’ll still work with granulated)
One teaspoon ground ginger
2 large eggs
One teaspoon cinnamon

Separate the eggs so 2 egg yolks are together and 2 egg whites are together. Ensure you separated them without any trace of the yolks getting into the whites. Whisk oil & sugar together thoroughly with electric whisk. Next whisk in the egg yolks, milk & vanilla flavouring. Fold in the shredded beetroot. Next fold in the spices, baking powder, flour and cocoa powder. Clean the whisk attachments of your food mixer very carefully! Whisk egg whites on a high speed until stiff & standing up in peaks. Fold the whisked egg white into the rest of the mixture carefully with a metal spoon. Place in a greased 8″ round cake tin lined with greaseproof paper. Bake at 180 degrees Centigrade/350 degrees Fahrenheit/Gas Mark 4 until cooked. Probably an hour or more, depending on your oven. Dividing it between 2 or 3 sandwich tins means it bakes more quickly. Sandwich them together with the same frosting you use to cover the cake with. The batter can also be used to make small cup cakes which would bake a lot faster at the same temperature or maybe just a little higher.

It can be covered with buttercream or cream cheese frosting which is made from a white cream cheese like Philadelphia blended with a little butter or margarine and icing sugar (plus a dash of vanilla flavouring) to a sweet, thick cream that complements this type of cake.

You can use half the quantity of cocoa powder if you mix in 3oz or 4oz of real chocolate into the batter at the stage just before you fold in the egg white – but firstly grate it and then melt it in the microwave before adding to cake mixture – dark chocolate is better than milk chocolate. Cooking chocolate is OK to use if you wish (obviously cheaper) but get plain rather than milk.

You can use self-raising flour if you can’t get hold of baking powder.

If using it as a wedding cake, ice it in roll-on fondant icing or Regal Ice.

Orange & Lemon Citrus Cake was the top tier of our wedding cake. This is a lovely cake and if you want to be a little bit generous with the orange & lemon zest and the juices too, it will make it even fruitier tasting! I find that it’s much easier using a lemon zester to finely shred the top layer of the peel off the fruit. I then cut the fruit into quarters after zesting (or even sixths or eighths if it’s quite a large orange or lemon) and squeezed each section very firmly over a sieve. This get all the juice out and saves the pips & pulp falling into your cake batter. You CAN use lime, but remember that lime is a bit stronger tasting than lemon so don’t go mad with lime!

As with the other 2 cakes, I used marzipan under the white, roll-on icing – just a very thin layer though (2mm maximum when it’s just a sponge/Victoria type cake about 1cm is OK when it’s a fruit cake though). All the experts say don’t use marzipan if it’s not a fruit cake but I was happier using it to make sure the white roll-on icing sealed well over the top. The marzipan will seal to the cake if the cake is first brushed with a thin layer of warmed apricot preserve (jam or jelly) then the marzipan over the top. If you then brush the marzipan with white spirit like gin, white rum or vodka before you apply the roll-on white icing, the white icing will seal well to the marzipan.

I found HALF quantities of the recipe below made enough cake batter to use with a 6 inch heart-shaped tin which was about 3 inches deep.

You only need to make the butter-cream frosting if you’re not icing it in the traditional British wedding cake way! So those ingredients aren’t necessary if you’re not icing it with butter-cream. Whichever way you frost or ice it, remember that it looks great garnished with those candied orange & lemon slices you can buy from specialist delicatessens.

The cake is easier to make if you use an electric whisk although I didn’t have one when I made mine & it still turned out fine!

ORANGE & LEMON CITRUS CAKE

Cake Ingredients:

8oz (250g or one stick) margarine
8oz (250g or one and a quarter cups) caster sugar (or fine granulated sugar)
12oz (350g or three cups) self-raising flour (all-purpose flour with baking powder)
4 eggs
1 cup orange and lemon (or orange and lime) juice mixed
Grated zest of 2 medium oranges and 2 medium lemons (use a fruit zester, it’s easier & more accurate than rubbing against the fine side of a cheese grater!)

Butter Cream Ingredients (OPTIONAL):

12oz (350g or 2 and a half cups) icing sugar (frosting)
6oz (175g or one and a half sticks) margarine
2 tablespoons orange juice
2 tablespoons lemon juice (or lime juice)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C (320 degrees F or Gas Mark 3) or 10 degrees C less if a fan assisted oven.
Mix the margarine and sugar together and cream until light and fluffy. Then beat in the eggs, one at a time. Stir in the fruit juices, & citrus zest plus the flour and mix well. Pour the mixture into a cake tin measuring 8″x12″x1 and a half” (20cmx30cmx3.5cm) which has been lined with baking parchment and spread evenly. Bake in the pre-heated oven for roughly 35 minutes but it may well take longer – keep checking. Allow the cake to cool in the tin before removal and storage in an air-tight container.

Haven’t included instructions for making the buttercream as I never made it myself for my own cake – but I imagine it’s pretty straightforward and the process would be very similar to making a buttercream frosting for a Red Velvet Cake.