With this recipe you can also add complementary ingredients and syrups to not only enhance the flavour, but also keep the cake moist.  For example, adding the zest of one lemon to the cake batter, and then brushing the finished cake with a lemon syrup can really lift this sponge.

350g Unsalted Butter (room temp)
350g Caster Sugar
350g Self-Raising Flour (sieved)
175g Plain Flour (sieved)
7 Large Eggs (beaten; room temp)
2 Large Egg Yolks
0.5 Tsp Vanilla Paste/Pod

1. Preheat the (fan) oven to 160°C
2. Grease a 23cm (9inch) round cake tin with melted butter and line with a double thickness (2 sheets) of baking parchment.
3. In a mixer, cream the butter and sugar together on a medium to high speed until light and fluffy.
4. Gradually beat in the beaten eggs and egg yolk a little at a time until all is incorporated.
5. Fold in the two different sieved flours and the vanilla by hand until all combined.
6. Put the mixture in the tin and bake in the oven for 1 hour.
7. Take out the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 5-10 mins before turning out onto a wire cooling rack.

Posts that have used this recipe (or something similar):

Popsy’s 5th Birthday Cake

Scaling Recipes:

The general rule for scaling cake recipes is to increase the ingredient quantities by 1.5 times for the next tin size up. Below are the ingredient measurements for this madeira cake for different cake tin sizes (square and round):

	6inch round 5 inch square	7inch round 6 inch square	8inch round 7 inch square	9inch round 8 inch square
Unsalted Butter	155g	230g	350g	525g
Caster Sugar	155g	230g	350g	525g
Self-Raising Flour	155g	230g	350g	525g
Plain Flour	75g	115g	175g	260g
Eggs	3	4.5	7	10
Egg Yolks	1	1.5	2	3
Vanilla Pod	0.5	0.75	1	1.5