Romantic cottages for two in the Peak District

Mary Berry’s Orange Wholemeal Cake

I have had the Mary Berry Aga Cook Book for about 25 years, but it was only this year that I happened to hover half a second over the Orange Wholewheat Cake recipe with just enough time to notice that she had described it as ‘A cake which uses wholewheat flour and is absolutely delicious’.

And it is! Why did I wait so long to discover it?

Method

Grease and line the bottom of two 7″ (18cm) sandwich tins.
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.

Measure all the cake ingredients into a mixing bowl and beat well for about two minutes (I do his in the mixer. A good Mary Berry tip is to take care not to over mix – stop as soon as the mixture is smooth and well blended. The finished mixture should be of a soft ‘dropping’ consistency which will fall off the spoon easily.)

Divide the mixture evenly between two tins and bake at 180C/350F/Gas 4for about 20 minutes. In a two-oven Aga this is with the cold plain shelf on the second row of runners from the top.

Turn the sponges out onto a wire rack. When they are cool sandwich the two layers with half the icing mixture (all the ingredients well mixed together) and spread the second half on top, swirling the icing with your knife or making pretty patterns with a fork!