Cumquat Marmalade Tea Cake

In my garden I had an ever fruiting cumquat tree. Upon deciding to move, I thought I should finally get around to making cumquat marmalade while I had the chance. I moved last weekend, so this recipe came from 1/2 a jar of marmalade I had left and couldn't bare to throw out, and the odds and ends of my pantry. The cake turned out to be delicious! Perfect with tea. Cumquat marmalade and mandarin juice can easily be swapped for any citrus fruit, but if you can get your hands on cumquat marmalade I highly recommend it.

Cumquat Marmalade from Stephanie Alexander's The Cooks Companion.

Ingredients

3 cups wholemeal flour (plain would be fine too, but the coarser texture of the wholemeal worked really well)
2 Tbsp cornflour

1/2 cup caster sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

Zest of 1 lemon

2 cups mandarin juice

2/3 cups vegetable oil 

2/3 cup maple syrup

1 Tbsp vanilla

1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

for the glaze

1/2 cup cumquat marmalade

1 Tbsp vanilla

1 tsp water

Line two round 9" cake tins, and preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

In a large bowl combine the flours, sugar, baking powder and soda, salt and lemon zest. In a separate bowl whisk together the juice, oil, maple syrup and vanilla. Add the wet mixture to the dry and whisk thoroughly.

Pour half the batter into one of the lined cake tins. This will be the cake at the bottom of your layer cake. To the remaining mixture, stir through the apple cider vinegar. Quickly pour the batter into the second cake tin, and bake both cakes for around 30 minutes.

When the cakes have been removed from the oven, cool slightly. Glaze the cakes while they are still warm, but not too hot.

To make the glaze, heat the marmalade, vanilla and water in a saucepan until the marmalade just starts to bubble. Place the bottom cake layer on a plate, and pierce a few times with a toothpick or a small knife. Pour a bit less than half the glaze on the bottom layer cake. Place the second cake on top of the first, and pour the remaining glaze over the top.