Canoe Cake

Ok. Wilful here. I've posted about my "Cavecakes", which are cupcakes with giant sinkholes in the middle. Now I've got to tell you about Canoe Cake, which is a loaf cake that does the same thing.

The first time I made Canoe Cake it turned out beautifully: golden brown and moist, with a perfectly risen high dome. There were no witnesses to this miracle as I ate almost the whole loaf by myself. The second time I made the cake, something went terribly wrong.
The cake is question is from Nigella Lawson's book "How to be a Domestic Goddess." She calls it Lemon Syrup Loaf Cake and it's divine, even when it sinks so much that a tiny person could sit in the middle of the loaf and paddle the cake around a small lake.

After examining the recipe many times I think my problem is that I'm not using cake flour. Nigella specifies "Self rising cake flour", which is just too British to find in America with any ease. I found a conversion online for how to make your own and the first time I made the recipe I used cake flour combined with baking powder. Every time after that I've used regular flour because I haven't had any cake flour around. If you make this cake I would recommend you use cake flour. I'm going to try that next time and I'll post about how it turns out.
Anyway, this is a fantastically delicious cake that you should make. If it sinks in the middle like mine did, just cut it up into cubes, layer it with whipped cream and fruit and call it a trifle. No one will know it came out of the oven looking like a canoe.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Cup butter, unsalted
  
• 1/2 Cup + 1 Tbls. Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• Zest of one Lemon
• 1 Cup plus 1 Tablespoon self rising cake flour OR 1 Cup + 1 Tablespoon Cake flour mixed with 1 1/2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
• Pinch Salt
• 4 Tablespoons Milk

For the Syrup:

• 4 Tablespoons Lemon Juice
• 1/2 Cup Sugar
• Fresh Thyme Sprigs (Optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Butter a loaf pan and line it with parchment paper (NOT WAX PAPER). Cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs and lemon zest. Add flour and salt and then mix in the milk. Bake cake for 45 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.
While cake is baking, make the lemon syrup: boil the lemon juice and sugar together until the sugar has dissolved completely. if you like, strip some leaves off of from fresh Thyme springs and add the to syrup while it's cooking. These will add a light herbal scent to the cake.

Now for the fun part: poke the cake all over with a skewer or chopstick. Pour the syrup over the cake and let it cool while the lemony goodness soaks in.