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Chocolate Madeira Cake Recipe

I love Madeira cake. I mean REALLY love it. It’s part of my past. So when I was asked recently “How do you convert your Madeira cake recipe into a chocolate cake?” I thought it would be a great recipe to share with you all. I also still had the Morello Cherry and William Pear compote and Belgium chocolate ganache from Tesco’s to try out so they were a perfect fit!

This cake is really easy to make and is slightly firmer than my previous chocolate recipes, yet it’s still moist – making it a perfect foundation cake (as my mum would say). In other words it’s perfect for covering in sugarpaste for a celebration cake and the best thing is the fact that it doesn’t crumble like other chocolate cakes do. I do hate a crumbly cake, especially when you’re trying to get a crumb coating of buttercream on it!

Madeira cake recipe 

(Makes an 8″ cake – 1 ½” deep) 

75g butter at room temperature
75g margarine (Flora is best) at room temperature
 200g caster sugar
1 tea spoon vanilla essence
3 eggs (large) 
175 g plain flour
50g cocoa powder
 1 ½ teasp of baking powder
3 tbsp milk
 
  1. Line an 8″ cake tin with silicon paper and pre-heat your oven to 180ºC (160ºC fan).
  2. Blend the butter, margarine and sugar together until light and fluffy, then add the eggs slowly until they’re really well mixed in.
  3. In a separate bowl weigh out the flour, cocoa and baking powder. Mix them so that you have a light brown dry mixture. This will prevent you having any cocoa lumps in the mix. Sieve into the butter and sugar mix and blend.
  4. Add the vanilla essence and milk and mix well.
  5. Pour the cake mix into the tin and smooth with the back of a metal spoon.  Bake for 45 minutes in the centre of the oven. The cake is ready when you can smell that delicious chocolate cake aroma filling your kitchen. The cake will come away from the sides of the tin and a skewer will come out clean when inserted into the middle of the cake.
  6. Leave to cool on a wire rack
  7. When completely cool cut into two halves and fill with compote/ buttercream /jam. I loved the Tesco’s compote. It would be great for making a black forest gateau.
  8. Cover the top of the cake with a dusting of icing sugar or a really decadent chocolate ganache (if you want a ganache recipe you can find mine on this post)

I re-heated the Tesco ganache in a saucepan and poured it all over the cake till it just dribbled down. There was a little left over which Tim said could not be wasted! He scooped it up with a spoon.   I then placed the finished cake on the kitchen table to cool. Actually, it was to bribe the girls to do their homework before the Sunday evening witching hour! No homework. No cake!

It worked!

Enjoy!

More Madiera you may like. 

My Mum’s Madeira Cake Recipe Is The Best In The World

6-12″ Madiera Cake ingredients

Try This Lemon And Lime Madeira Cake Recipe. You’ll love the ZING

How to adapt a cake recipe for different size tins and a 10 Madeira cake recipe.

How To Bake A Large 14 Square Madeira Cake

FAQ: How do I work out the ingredients for an odd shaped cake tin

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EmmaMT from CakesBakesAndCookies.com

Follow me at www.cakesbakesandcookies.com for inspirational cake design, recipes and cake decorating tips.

35 Comments

  1. emma looks gorgeousHow many calories but then who cares

    1. EmmaMT from CakesBakesAndCookies.com says:

      We don’t count calories in this house… for obvious reasons!!!

      EM
      XX

  2. Hi, I really need help, I want to make Maidera cake in two tiers.So first tier is going to be 10″(recipe please), second is going to be 8″ (recipe), and I am having trouble with figuring out measure in oz.So please somebody writte me detailed recipes I would be thankful a lot

    1. EmmaMT from CakesBakesAndCookies.com says:

      Hi Dina,

      Thanks for stopping by. You can see my regular Madeira cake recipe here https://cakesbakesandcookies.com/2011/05/28/my-mums-madiera-cake-is-the-best-in-the-world/#comments. It’s in g and oz. If you want to make it a chocolate recipe then swap 50g of chocolate for the flour and swap the water for milk for each set of ingredients.

      For the 8″ cake use 1 x the ingredients. For the 10″ use 2x the ingredients. This should give you two cakes of the same depth (around 1½-2″).

      Hope that helps

      EmmaMT

  3. Hi Emma, I have to agree with you about your Mum’s Madeira cake. I used it recently and it was delicious. I’m about to try your chocolate version today.

    I’m a volunteer for Free Cakes for Kids, an organisation making birthday cakes for kids whose families aren’t able to supply one. I won’t be looking at other recipes, I’ll always be using yours from now on. Many thanks
    Pat

    1. EmmaMT from CakesBakesAndCookies.com says:

      Ah Pat thanks for that. So lovely to hear.

      Tell me more about ‘Free cakes for Kids’. Sounds very interesting and something I should get involved with (or at lease bring it to my readers attention- as there are so many bakers out there!) Please leave me a comment with a web link so I can see.

      Thanks

      EmmaMT

  4. Hello Emma,
    Please can you tell me what the recipe will be for a 9inch round Chocolate cake.. I don’t want assume the recipe for your 8inch round is enough.

    Thanks Emma

    Tracey 🙂

    1. EmmaMT from CakesBakesAndCookies.com says:

      It is enough to use the 8″ recipe. The difference will be about 1 cm less deep which you can make up for with buttercream. If you were to add half the ingredients on top it would be too much.

      Hope that helps

      EmmaMT

    2. Thanks Emma,
      One more question. How do I work out the amount of Cocoa powder to 250g flour?

      Thank Emma

      Tracey :-))

  5. Hi emma would you use ganche on your chocalte maderia cake,im looking at covering both with maltezeers ?x

    1. EmmaMT from CakesBakesAndCookies.com says:

      Oh yes, that would be amazing…especially the Malteser part!

      EmmaMT

  6. […] all in a Star Wars theme. Today it’s just baking the cakes, so Soph is roughly following this chocolate madeira cake recipe. She’s cooking two cakes, and each one is using double the […]

  7. Please can you tell me how long the cake will store for?

    1. EmmaMT from CakesBakesAndCookies.com says:

      Hello,

      Madeira cake lasts ages. Once baked it’s good for 5-7 days. If you cover it in buttercream and sugarpaste it can last longer as it is essentially sealed. It’s the perfect cake for decorating as it gives you more time to play around.

      I hope that helps

      EmmaMT

  8. Chantelle says:

    Hi Emma

    I am URGENTLY looking for a chocolate pound cake recipe to use for a topsy turfy cake for Friday for my daughters birthday…is this suitable to use for carving or will it crumble?
    Would you have a chocolate recipe suitable for TT cake if this one isn’t? Your help is MUCH appreciated.
    Thanks

    1. EmmaMT from CakesBakesAndCookies.com says:

      Hello. Sorry I’m not completely ofay with what a TT cake is?

      This cake is perfect for carving though. I use it all the time. It’s a firm cake so doesn’t crumble. For best results bake it a day ahead of shaping.

      Hope that helps

      EmmaMT

  9. […] looks quite deep, it actually only needs a 2 egg mix to rise up and fill the shape. I adapted this Chocolate Madeira Cake recipe from the lovely Emma MT at Cakes, Bakes and Cookies to the quantity […]

    1. EmmaMT from CakesBakesAndCookies.com says:

      Mmmmwwwwaaaahhhh! Thanks for the share!

  10. Laura-Christina Calvert says:

    This recipe sounds fab and I can’t wait to test it out this week when I make my sons birthday cake. I’ve only ever made maderia cake once for a lemon drizzle cake and my Devils Food Cake (my usual celebration cake of choice) is a bit rich for a hoard of five year olds, so hopefully I can pull this off. I’m also pleased to hear that’ll keep well as I plan to cover this in lashings of chocolate buttercream and green poured fondant (a bogey coloured long French Fancy then) and the whole thing is going to take me three days to do with the finishing decorative touches added just before we take it to our party venue.

    Thank you for sharing. 🙂

  11. Laura-Christina Calvert says:

    Had to pop back to say that your recipe was a massive hit. I quadrupled up the ingredients and ended up with the best 10 inch cake I’ve ever baked (well it was the first time I’d ever baked one). I had it in the oven for neigh on three hours, but had to take it out as it was catching on the sides and I didn’t dare leave it in any longer although I probably could have because it was lovely and most after it had cooled completely overnight. Needless to say when Saturdays party came and I’d spent two days filling and decorating it was still deliciously moist and went down a hit with the children my chocoholic hubby and in-laws. Definitely going to make this one again. 😀

  12. How long can U keep chocolate Madera cake

    1. EmmaMT from CakesBakesAndCookies.com says:

      Hello,

      The chocolate Madeira cake doesn’t keep for as long as the vanilla one but will still be good for 3-5 days once sealed with buttercream and sugarpaste.

      Hope that helps

      EmmaMT

  13. Hi. I have looked at all your recipes and comments. My confusion came with the chocolate cake. In one comment you suggested replacing 50g of flour for the coca in each set of ingredients. Then in another I lady asked about 250g flour and you said 75g coca.
    So my question is am I misunderstanding the two comments?
    I would really like to understand this correctly before trying.
    Thanks and cant wait to give it a go….

    1. EmmaMT from CakesBakesAndCookies.com says:

      Hello Debbie,

      Sorry it does get a bit confusing when you read all the comments from way back.

      I have been gaining tons of experience as the years go buy and as I find new ingredients work better I probably leave different replies. I’ve got over 1,750 comments across the whole blog so it’s hard to keep up and update responses.

      You will find this post on different ingredient amounts for different size cake tins to be the most help. Chocolate Madeira cake.

      These are the recipes I have tried time and again and have had continued success with. They produce 3″ deep cakes and are lovely and moist.

      I hope that helps.
      Good luck with your cake

      EmmaMT

      1. Thanks Emma, your amazing keeping this all together and going so smoothly.
        I will be having a go over the next few weeks at both at will let you know how I go.
        My husband’s favourite cake is Madeira, we use to buy it fro Woolworth’s or Cole’s but it’s not that easy to find anymore, then I saw your post and thought great I can give this ago myself….

        Kind regards
        Debbie

  14. I’ve spent this morning with my daughter-in-law making your chocolate madeira cake in a 9″ square tin. It was a fantastic success – I levelled the top before turning it out of the tin so we got a taste, Delicious! Really, seriously chocolaty!!! Thank you! I used the amount for a 10″ round, but only used 9 eggs instead of 10 because they were quite large, and also only used about 2/3 or the milk.

    It’s to be decorated tomorrow morning with fondant icing squares in dark green, light green and black….birthday cake for my 8 year old Minecraft obsessed grandson!!!

  15. Serena Weldon says:

    Just wrote dwn ur recipe for choc madeira cake, cant wait to try it out. Yummiest

  16. Hi Emma, love your recipe – going to use it for my son’s birthday cake next week. One question – what’s the egg size in your recipe? Thanks, CJ

    1. EmmaMT from CakesBakesAndCookies.com says:

      Hello,

      I use large eggs whenever possible but medium work pretty well too.

      EmmaMT

      1. EmmaMT from CakesBakesAndCookies.com says:

        Just another thought… If you need a different size tin have a look at this post.

        Hope that helps

        EmmaMT

  17. Hi Emma, can you tell me which kind of margarine you use in the recipe please. I have only ever used a good quality butter up until now.

    1. EmmaMT from CakesBakesAndCookies.com says:

      Hello,

      I use Stork and Flora. I don’t really have a preference. They both taste great in this cake.

      EmmaMT

      1. Helen Loudon says:

        Thank you for reply Emma. I have the hard Stork, would this work or do you recommend the spreads straight from the fridge kind?

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