Sunday 3 October 2010

Triple ginger and spice cake



As soon as the weather turns autumnal my thoughts turn to ginger cake – it’s perfect comfort food.
Not much beats a big chunk of warming, sticky, dark ginger cake and a mug of tea – all’s right with the world! Here’s the cake straight from the oven:


For such a strong flavour, ginger appears to be universally popular.
Is there anyone who doesn’t like ginger cake? This ginger cake is for those who like it spicy and sticky. The large amounts of dark brown sugar and black treacle counter each other so it’s not an overly sweet cake but is dark and squidgy. I think you can see that from the un-iced cake:


To add some more flavour and ensure the sponge was mega-moist I brushed some of the ginger syrup from the jar of stem ginger over the top of the hot cake – it’s an adaptation of lemon cake recipes where you brush sweetened lemon juice over the hot cake.
It worked very well.


Even the icing packs some spice as it uses the syrup from the stem ginger jar rather than water or milk.
The original recipe drizzled the icing – somewhat sparingly - over the cake, in the style of a Jackson Pollock painting. When I communicated this to the CCM (Caked Crusader’s Ma) she fell silent and then said, “but I like thick icing.” Dutiful daughter that I am I trebled the quantity of icing and covered the cake! I do have to agree with her; if a cake is iced and you can see any of the top of the cake through the icing I feel deprived!


The CCD (Caked Crusader’s Da) rather stunned us all as he ate this cake.
Let’s just say that he doesn’t often amaze us with his palate or the flavours he detects in things (example of a standard comment made by the CCD – “What’s the goo on top? I like that). Today he said, “I love the treacle taste that comes through.” And we all looked at him...mouths agape!


I think using allspice rather than mixed spice was an interesting addition to this cake – it’s innate pepperiness added some punch.
In terms of flavour I’d say this is an “entry level” ginger cake, for those just dipping their tastebuds into the world of spice! Next time I make it I will stoke it up a bit more with the ground ginger.


Ingredients

For the cake:
250g unsalted butter
250g dark brown muscovado sugar
250g black treacle
300ml milk
2 eggs
100g stem ginger from a jar, finely chopped
375g plain flour (I used self raising in error but it didn’t seem to make much difference, in fact it might even have been better as the cake didn’t sink on cooling, which is something ginger cakes can be prone to)
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp allspice
2 tsp ground ginger
Ginger syrup from the jar for brushing on the hot cake

For the icing:
3 tablespoons ginger syrup from the jar
300g icing sugar
Water, as necessary


Method

Preheat oven to 160˚C/fan oven 140˚C/320˚F/gas mark 3.

Line either a 23cm square tin or a 30x20cm tin with baking paper. Don’t be tempted to use a smaller tin – this cake rises a lot during baking!

Place the butter, muscovado sugar and treacle into a large saucepan and heat gently, stirring occasionally, until the ingredients have melted and combined.

Stir in the milk then remove the pan from the hob and leave to cool until the mix is just warm, rather than hot.

Beat in the eggs; if you do this while the mix is hot you risk getting scambled eggs.

Place the chopped ginger, flour, bicarbonate of soda, allspice and ginger in a bowl and gradually stir in the contents of the saucepan. I did this in my stand mixer and had the beaters on a slow speed whilst I poured in the wet ingredients.

Pour the batter (it will be runny and also lumpy – because of the chopped ginger) into the prepared tin and bake for 1 hour before opening the oven door – this will stop the cake sinking. Test the cake with a skewer – it’s done when the skewer comes out cleanly. Mine took 1 hour 30 minutes in total.

As soon as the cake comes out of the oven brush some of the ginger syrup from the jar of stem ginger over it.

Leave to cool in the tin on a wire rack. Don’t attempt to de-tin the cake until cool as ginger cakes are particularly fragile when first out the oven.

The cake will keep, at this point, for up to a week.

On the day of serving make the icing: beat together the ingredients until smooth and glossy. Add enough water to achieve a thick, glossy icing that will ooze but not drip.

Drizzle or pour over the cake and leave to set. The cake needs nothing to accompany it other than a cup of tea.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have made.

Eat.

22 comments:

Caroline said...

Oh, that looks so, so good CC. I adore ginger and was looking through old photos the other day and came across some ginger cake. I was just thinking I ought to make some again and now, having seen yours I'll have to!

Perfect for nasty wet autumn weather too.

Liz Winterburn said...

I will definitely have to make this, as my Hubby just loves ginger cake. It looks so yummy! Thanks for the recipe very much appreciated. :-)

I heart cupcakes said...

This looks gorgeous, and I too adore ginger cake. Wish I'd made something nice and comforting today like this rather than experimenting with a tomato soup cake which turned out deeply unpleasant

Soo said...

That looks amazing.....

Helen @ Fuss Free Flavours said...

Triple ginger! That does sound fab!

I am wondering about adding some ginger wine next time I make a ginger cake?

Sam said...

You're right, I've never met anyone that doesn't like ginger cake. Yours looks fantastically sticky, just the way I like it!

The comment about your Dad made me laugh, he sounds just like mine, he has no sense of taste at all! I once gave him some roast chicken and he said "this is nice, what type of meat is it?"

Baking Addict said...

I have to put my hands up and say I don't like ginger cake or ginger anything! Everyone usually looks in horror thinking how can that be? However your cake looks really delicious, I am quite tempted to try a bite.

Katie said...

One of my favourite flavours and perfect for this time of year. The cake looks so moist and sticky - just what a good gingerbread should be. Love all the drizzly icing too - its onyl breakfast but I want a huge slice now!

The Caked Crusader said...

Hi Helen

I think ginger wine would be an excellent addition! If you didn't want to bake the wine into the cake you could brush it over the top as soon as it comes out of the oven.

Cakelaw said...

I love, love, love sticky ginger cake! This one looks especially good.

Maggie said...

Lovely dark, sticky ginger cake for these coming Autumnal days. I love it CC.

Choclette said...

Ooh, ooh, ooh, you are so right now is the time for gingerbread and yours looks completely as it should. Used to use lemon icing when I made it which complimented the ginger well.

Ocean Breezes and Country Sneezes said...

Oh my, this looks good, and hubby loves ginger and spice cake! Looks like I'll be baking this weekend!

Maria♥ said...

That ginger cake definitely looks a winner!

Maria
x

Ling's Passion said...

Hmm...this is new to me. Have never tasted a ginger and spice cake.

Emily said...

Look at how moist and delicious this cake is! Please, please don't let me forget about it. :)
I would like to make it in November/December.

I mean, wow!

zerozero84 said...

Wow, that looks AWESOME. I am now torn - I was all geared up to make your Dark Jamaican Ginger Cake next week, but now I've seen this I don't know which I'd prefer....stem ginger vs fresh ginger?! I like it as dark, sticky and gingery as possible - which do you think would be best?

Thanks!

The Caked Crusader said...

Hi zerozero84

Tough question - in terms of pure gingeriness I'd go for the Jamaican cake. But if you really like the 'dark and sticky' I'd go for this one and maybe double the amount of ground ginger.

Hope this helps!

Danielle said...

That just looks sooo good. I definetly have to make this. It's the perfect cake for fall.

Lisa said...

This cake looks so dark and delicious. I love ginger cake.

Nuesenicnic said...

I've just made this cake and the house smells amazing. Sadly it has bloody sunk in the middle. I used self raising flour, I think I will try plain next time. Tastes great though.

coco cooks said...

My mind has been on ginger too. Love a moist ginger cake. I look at people odd who dont love the flavor.:-)