Ginger and rum cake

I think I must be a contrarian baker.  Now that summer actually seems to have arrived, I know I should be thinking about strawberries, cream and other such light frippery….but what I really wanted this week was ginger cake.  And rum.  And dates.  And all things that make you think of colder weather (not that I even like colder weather).  As I said – contrarian.

This cake is always better the day after baking, and the day after that; it’s always the way with sticky spicy cakes – they need time to mellow and let their flavours mature.  I do have a penchant for rum and have a selection at home that would rival most cocktail bars; for this cake I chose a spiced rum as I thought the extra punch of flavour would work well.  Spiced rum always seems to have a vanilla note to it too and I never miss the opportunity to get a bit of vanilla into something.

You can taste each of the main flavours in the cake: ginger, dates and rum.  Putting the rum in the icing gives a raw hit – if you like your booze softer, and more baked, consider putting more in the cake and leaving it out of the icing.

Without checking through almost nine years of blogging, I don’t remember putting dates into a ginger cake before.  It was a good move – it turned a standard ginger cake into something more akin to a sticky toffee pudding.  You could leave the icing off this cake and serve it warm, as dessert, with custard or ice cream.  Personally, I am always partial to a white icing and a bit of the itchy teeth feel it can sometimes create.  Many older people I know have lost their taste for overly sweet things…I do sometimes wonder if it will ever happen to me.  I just can’t imagine being that person who winces when they eat something and say, ‘ooh, that’s a bit sweet for me’.  Does. Not.  Compute.

Ingredients

75g unsalted butter
100g dark muscovado sugar
125g black treacle
125g golden syrup
2 eggs
3 tablespoons rum – I used spiced rum
225g self raising flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
50g stem ginger, finely chopped
75g medjool dates – pitted and finely chopped

For the icing:
100g icing sugar
1-2 tablespoons spiced rum
1 tablespoon stem ginger syrup (from the jar of stem ginger)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/350F/gas mark 4.

Line a 900g loaf tin with baking paper.

Place the butter, sugar, treacle and golden syrup into a saucepan and melt together over a gentle heat.

Leave to cool for at least 5 minutes before beating in the eggs and rum – if the mix is too hot the eggs will scramble and leave lumps in the cake.  Not nice.

Stir in the flour and ground ginger.

Stir in the chopped ginger and dates.

Pour into the prepared baking tin.

Bake for 50 minutes – 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Leave to cool for 10-15 minutes in the tin, before de-tinning and leaving to cool completely on a wire rack.

Now make the icing: mix the icing sugar with 1 tablepsoon each of rum and ginger syrup – add the extra spoonful of rum only if needed.  You’re aiming for a thick, glossy icing that has movement to it but isn’t so loose it will just run off the cake.

Spoon the icing over the cake and leave to set.

This cake gets better with age – it becomes stickier and more flavoursome.

Serve in generous slices with a cup of tea.

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

Eat.

Date, honey and walnut cake

Whenever we go on a trip out there are usually two purchases I make: a fridge magnet, and a jar of local honey.  My latest honey acquisition came after a visit to an Essex Wildlife Trust centre at the wonderfully named FingringhoeWick.  It doesn’t sound like it should be a real place!

I’ve spent a lot of time recently sorting through my cookbook collection; it had got out of hand and so disorganised following our house move (over 18 months ago now – eek! No excuse anymore!) that I couldn’t find anything.  Now it’s all nicely arranged by type, so I had no trouble locating an old cookbook I have dedicated entirely to honey.

This simple cake stood out as the one to make; I’ve boosted the quantities a bit but the ratios remain the same.  With the weather predicted to be warm, I didn’t want anything too fiddly or involving buttercreams – and this cake couldn’t be easier or quicker to make.

Don’t be fooled by this cake’s plain Jane looks; it packs a glorious punch with comforting flavours and a soft texture punctuated by walnuts and chewy dates.  It’s a more old fashioned sort of crumbly sponge and the walnuts stop it getting too sweet, which you might think it would be given the inclusion of sugar, honey and dates. It really is worth making.  Keeps well too…which might not be an issue!

Ingredients

185g unsalted butter, at room temperature
115g castor sugar
75g runny honey
3 eggs
115g dates, chopped
115g walnuts, chopped
300g self raising flour

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C/fan oven 160C/350F/gas mark 4.

Line a 20cm round springform tin with baking paper.

Beat together the butter, sugar and honey until light, soft and whippy.

Beat in the eggs one at a time.

Mix in the dates, walnuts and flour and ensure everything is well combined.

Spoon into the prepared tin, level the surface and bake for approximately 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.  Start checking it after 40 minutes, as ovens vary.

Leave to cool in the tin until you can safely handle; de-tin and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

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

Eat

Date and ginger cake

This sort of cake personifies the start of winter to me; it’s got lots of rich flavours and warming spice.  The dates taste like toffee and the gentle hint of chocolate in the background adds depth to what could otherwise be just another nice spiced sponge.  It has the lightness of texture that you find in really good sticky toffee puddings.  Oh, and if you’re still not sold it’s a doddle to make, smells divine whilst cooking and keeps for days thus, if you were so minded, you could eat the whole thing yourself!

I served the cake at room temperature but, if you omit the glaze, it would be great served warm with custard for a winter pudding.  I smiled when I typed that because one thing I have realised being married to The Custard King aka Mr CC is that pudding and custard is an all-seasons food!

This cake just grew and grew – it came out enormous! There’s practically a whole other cake in the huge dome!

I know some people are wary at using the C word too early, but I think this could easily be adapted to a Christmas cake for those who don’t want to go down the traditional fruitcake path.  You could go the easy route i.e. make it as I have but plonk some plastic reindeer on top, or change the tin to a traybake tin, increase the amount of icing and create a snow scene on top i.e. plonk some plastic reindeer, trees and snowmen on top.  You will notice from my suggestions that I am not much of a cake decorator…..

Ingredients

For the cake:

140g dates – stoned and chopped
410ml evaporated milk
100g soft dark brown sugar
225g plain flour
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
50g stem ginger – chopped
200g unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 eggs

For the glaze:

100g icing sugar

Enough stem ginger syrup to form a thick, glossy icing – add a teaspoon at a time

Method

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

Line a 20cm round springform tin with baking paper.

Place the dates, evaporated milk and dark brown sugar into a saucepan.

Bring to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring regularly, until the dates are soft and the sugar has melted – you can see this by looking on the back of your spoon; if you can see any granules you need to cook for longer.

Put the pan to one side to cool.

Place the flour, cocoa powder, ground ginger, bicarbonate of soda, stem ginger and butter into a food processor and blitz until there are no lumps.

Add the cooled date mixture and the eggs and blitz briefly just until the ingredients are combined.

Pour into the prepared tin and bake for approximately 1 hour – it may take longer – or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Leave to cool in the tin as initially the cake will be very soft.

De-tin after about 30 minutes and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

When the cake is cold you can add the glaze: use just enough stem ginger syrup to turn the icing sugar into a thick white glossy glaze.

Drizzle over the cake and leave to set.

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

Eat.

Pine nut and honey tart

A lot of my baking recently has been selected based on the limited time I had available and how low faff the recipe was.  Rather gloriously, this weekend I was able to accommodate a bit of faff, which was fortuitous as I had a hankering for pastry.  I’ve adapted this recipe from the BBC Good Foodwebsite and used dates and sultanas instead of glace fruit.  I still find glace fruit hard to love and had a box of dates a friend had bought me back from Oman (thanks, Jasmin!) so the stars seemed in alignment to make this happy substitution.

Normally, when a recipe gives the option of soaking fruit in either rum or orange juice I will ALWAYS pick rum.  But I fancied a change this time so surprised myself by opting for orange juice.  It did a nice job of plumping up the fruit and added a fruitiness to proceedings.

The filling is reasonably runny pre-baking so, although you mix the fruit into it do not be disheartened when you cut into the tart and see the fruit has settled at the bottom.  This is what’s meant to happen.

Fruit aside, the tart filling is virtually identical to a bakewell tart.  If you’re fed up with jam or berries in your bakewell this recipe provides a nice variation.  The pine nut and honey topping also makes a tasty change.  I don’t use pine nuts very often in my baking but they work very well and take on a lovely toasted flavour.

The flavours in this tart are gentle and harmonious.  There are many different influences in this recipe and I struggled to think how to describe it.  If you like bakewell tarts, baklava, Eccles cakes, marzipan and sticky toffee pudding you will love it!

Ingredients

For the pastry:

175g plain flour
85g unsalted butter – cold
30g caster sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon water

For the filling:

100g raisins
40g sultanas
100g dates – chopped so they are a similar size to the raisins and sultanas
3 tablespoons or either rum or orange juice
175g unsalted butter, at room temperature
175g golden caster sugar
50g plain flour
175g ground almonds
5 eggs
85g pine nuts
2 tablespoons clear honey

 To serve: thick cream

Method

Start by making the pastry: place the flour and butter in the food processor and blitz until you have fine crumbs. 

Add the sugar and blitz briefly.

While the machine is still running tip in the egg yolk and the water.

Stop the processor when clumps are starting to form.

Tip the clumps out onto a sheet of clingfilm and, using your hands, bring them together to form a ball of pastry.  Handle only enough to achieve this – you don’t want to overhandle the pastry and make it tough.

If you wish to make the pastry by hand rub the butter into the flour until you have breadcrumbs.  Stir in the sugar, egg and water and, using your hands, bring together to a ball of dough.

Roll the pastry out between two sheets of clingfilm so it is large enough to line a 23cm round loose bottomed tart tin.  Don’t expect lots of spare pastry overhanging the tin – this recipe makes just enough!

Prick the base of the pastry with a fork.

Cover with clingfilm and refrigerate for 1 hour.

While the pastry is chilling, start the filling: place the raisins, sultanas and dates in a bowl and add the orange juice or rum. 

Stir so all the fruit is covered with liquid and leave to soak, stirring occasionally if you happen to pass by.

Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan oven 180°C/400°F/gas mark 6.

Cover the chilled pastry with baking paper or non-stick foil and weigh down with baking beans.

Bake for 10 minutes, before removing the paper and beans and baking for a further 5 minutes or until the pastry is just starting to turn golden.

Remove from the oven and put to one side while you make the filling.

Reduce the oven temperature to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/gas mark 4.

Now make the tart filling: beat together the butter, sugar, flour, almonds and eggs.

Stir in the soaked fruit, including any liquid left in the bowl.

Spoon into the pastry case and level the surface.  It will look full but don't worry - it doesn't rise much on baking.

Scatter the pine nuts over the top.

Drizzle over the honey.

Bake for approximately 40-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the filling comes out clean.

If your tart browns too quickly (I’d check after 40 minutes) cover it loosely with foil and continue baking.

Leave to cool, in the tin, on a wire rack and de-tin for serving.

Serve at room temperature with thick cream.

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

Eat.

Walnut and date cake with walnut buttercream

If I was sponsored for every time I typed the word “birthday”, then by the end of May I could retire! This cake, for Mr CC’s birthday, concludes the birthday season amongst my nearest and dearest!

Mr CC is most fond of date and walnut cakes and I didn’t struggle to find a recipe. But then he dealt a curve ball and requested walnut buttercream. There are not many recipes for such a thing so I adapted a recipe. Any buttercream with chopped nuts, no matter how finely you chop them, will not be smooth but however much I tried to deter Mr CC from this request he stood firm.

The cake was stunning – it had similar flavour to sticky toffee pudding but was far less sweet, thanks to the walnuts, and had a light texture punctuated with crunchy nuggets of walnut. A big hit.

As predicted, the buttercream was a little gritty (not in an unpleasant way and barely noticeable when eaten with the cake) but the flavour was heavenly. The first hit of flavour was typical buttercream i.e. whippy sugary butter, but then the nut came through and cut away a lot of the sweetness. As with anything containing nuts, the flavour deepened over time.

Happy birthday Mr CC...enjoy this new decade!

Fairy Hobmother update: I’m sure many of you will have seen mentions of the Fairy Hobmother on other blogs. He (yes, confusing isn’t it!) is from Appliances Online [http://www.appliancesonline.co.uk/cookers/cookers.aspx], a major online white goods and appliances retailer, and visits bloggers with lovely gifts. I’m delighted with my Amazon voucher and can proudly state that I do believe in fairies! The Fairy Hobmother is a benevolent fairy (are there evil fairies?) and has promised to pick one person from anyone commenting on this post with an offer of a lovely gift...it could be you!

Ingredients

For the cake:
265g stoned dates, chopped
300ml boiling water
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
90g unsalted butter, at room temperature
200g light muscovado sugar
2 eggs
375g self raising flour
100g walnuts, chopped

For the buttercream:
375g icing sugar
170g unsalted butter, at room temperature
40g walnuts, finely chopped
1-2 tablespoons milk

To decorate: walnut halves.

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/Gas mark 4.

Line two 20cm round sandwich tins with baking paper ensuring that the paper comes up above the edge of the tin.

Place the water in a saucepan and bring to the boil.

Remove the pan from the heat and add the chopped dates and leave for 10 minutes.

Stir in the bicarbonate of soda and put to one side.

Beat together the butter and sugar until well combined. As it is brown sugar, it won’t go whippy as if you were using caster sugar and also, as there’s not much butter it won’t go creamy.

Beat in the eggs one at a time.

Stir in the dates and their liquid.

Fold in the flour and walnuts and make sure that the ingredients are well combined.

Spoon into the prepared tins and level the surface.

Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cakes comes out clean. Mine took 30 minutes.

Leave to cool in the tins, on a wire rack. The cake will be very soft and trying to de-tin it too early may cause heartache!

You can make the sponges a day or two in advance as long as you store them in an airtight container.

When you are ready to compile the finished cake make the buttercream: Place the icing sugar in a bowl and, with the mixer on a slow speed, start to beat in the butter. (Once the butter is mixed in a bit you can up the speed on the mixer).

Add the chopped nuts and enough milk to attain a soft, spreadable consistency.

Place one sponge on the serving plate and spread about 1/3 of the buttercream over the top.

Place the other sponge on top and gently press down to fix in place.

Spread the remaining buttercream over the top and sides of the cake.

Decorate with walnut halves, if desired.

Serve in generous slices.

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

Eat.

Rhubarb and date cake

The CCD’s (Caked Crusader’s Da) rhubarb plant has sprung into action just at the same time I came across this recipe. Nature really knows what it’s doing!

I’ve never seen rhubarb and dates partnered up before but it makes sense because the sweet, toffee quality of the dates act as a perfect natural sweetener for the acidic, fruity rhubarb. It works beautifully – both the rhubarb and dates keep their flavour but they hit your palate at different times. I just can’t believe I’ve not seen the combination before.

The rhubarb and dates are cut into small chunks and stirred into the batter. Mr CC was in charge of this and did a lovely job – he’s very careful in his chopping with the result being uniformly sized chunks. He did protest that the food processor could do it better but when he realised that argument wasn’t going to get him anywhere, he manned up and got chopping!

Garden rhubarb is not as sweet a forced rhubarb (the gloriously pink thin sticks that look like flamingo legs!) so I added a sugar topping to the cake to address this. I used this gorgeous sugar from The East India Company – it’s a cane sugar from the island of Guadeloupe and I loved the delicate sweetness and crunchy texture; the large granules were perfect for a cake topping. It’s not cheap but the glass jar it comes in is sealed with an old fashioned wax seal – undoing the jar made me feel like I was unpacking an exotic relic from the past!

When I first read the recipe I was concerned that the cake may be dry – don’t worry about this; rhubarb releases so much juice as it cooks that the one thing this cake will never be is dry or stodgy! The texture of the cake is a spongy, light bread pudding – it’s very moist, almost sticky but not dense.

I served the cake at room temperature with thick cream, but it would be divine warm with custard for dessert.

We’re enjoying amazingly sunny and bright spring weather at the moment; the temperature this weekend has been warmer than Istanbul. I love it when weather forecasters share this information – the location they pick is always so utterly random and obviously chosen simply because it’s colder than us. Anyway, wherever we’re warmer than at the moment, I do like a cake dappled in sunshine – it makes for such a cheery photo!

Ingredients

340g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
170g unsalted butter, straight from the fridge
230g caster sugar
450g rhubarb, chopped into small cubes
230g stoned dates, chopped into small pieces
2 eggs
120ml milk (either whole or semi skimmed)

Optional: extra sugar to sprinkle on top

Method

Preheat the oven to 190°C/fan oven 170°C/375°F/Gas mark 5.

Line a 23cm round springform tin with baking paper.

Place the flour and baking powder into a bowl.

Cut the butter into cubes and rub it into the flour using your fingertips until you have a mixture that resembles breadcrumbs. You can also achieve the same result using a stand mixer or food processor.

Stir in the sugar.

Stir the chopped rhubarb and dates into the mixture.

Combine the eggs and milk in a jug and beat a little; stir into the cake mix until well combined.

Spoon the batter into the prepared cake tin and level the surface.

If using, sprinkle 2-3 tablespoons of sugar on the top of the cake.

Bake for approximately 1 - 1½ hours or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean – best check on it after an hour. Mine took 1 hour 15 minutes.

Leave to cool on a wire rack until the tin is cool enough to safely handle.

Remove the cake from the tin and leave to cool completely on the wire rack.

Serve in generous slices with thick cream.

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

Eat.

Iced Date and Walnut spice cake

This cake has been on my radar for a while and, as it strikes me as a more wintry cake, I thought I’d better make it pronto…yes, Spring is finally creeping in!

People are strange (that’s a good title – someone should write a song using it) and sometimes it’s all about how you pitch things. If I produced this for my family and said “ta da! Look at this delicious date and walnut cake” I’d get the following range of responses: “I don’t eat dates”, “I don’t like walnuts”, etc etc. However, producing a “Toffee and nut cake” is met with joyful anticipation.

What stops this being a sticky toffee pudding cake (not that there’s anything wrong with that – I loved the one I made) is the spice mix that also goes into the batter. It adds a bit of heat to the flavour which works well with the sweetness of the dates.

This rich dark cake is quite divine – it has crunchy nuts and that sticky, deep toffee-ness that only dates can add. The white icing calms it down and I would recommend using it. You can make it with lemon juice to add a tart contrast but you know my view regarding lemons.

I’ll admit that this cake uses a lot of ingredients but mostly they’re store cupboard staple items for a keen baker. The method could not be simpler – or quicker - so please don’t be scared off by the sheer number of ingredients!

One quick comment on the glace icing...it’s made with single cream rather than water. This produces one of the softest, most flavoursome and gorgeous icings ever – and I don’t give such praise easily. It reminded me very much of a cake from my childhood; Entemann’s used to make a traybake style carrot cake and the white icing was exactly like this. The only note of caution is that because it is made with fresh cream it won’t last as long as a more traditional glace icing.

Ingredients

For the cake:
175g dates, stoned and chopped (I find this easiest if you snip them with scissors rather than a knife)
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
225ml boiling water
25g unsalted butter
1 egg
150g soft dark brown sugar
225g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons mixed spice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
75g ground almonds
75g walnuts, chopped

For the icing:
110g icing sugar
10g unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon single cream
1 tablespoon lemon juice (you can use water or more single cream instead, if you wish)

Optional decoration: approx 10 walnut halves

Method

- Preheat the oven to 180˚C/fan oven 160˚C/350˚F/Gas mark 4.

- Line a 20cm springform round tin with baking paper.

- Start by preparing the dates: place the chopped dates in a bowl and pour the boiling water over them.

- Add the bicarbonate of soda and the butter and stir until the butter has melted. Leave to one side to cool.

- Beat the egg and sugar together until well mixed.

- Add the cooled date mixture and all the remaining cake ingredients.

- Stir well to ensure the ingredients are combined thoroughly.

- Spoon into the prepared tin; don’t worry, the mix will be lumpy and rather unattractive.

- Bake for approximately 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

- Leave in the tin for 20 minutes before turning out and leaving to cool completely on a wire rack.

- Now make the icing: mix together all the ingredients until you have a glossy, thick yet still spreadable icing. You may need to add a little extra liquid to achieve this. You’re aiming for something thin enough to spread and run, but not so runny that you lose it all down the sides of the cake.

- Pour the icing over the cake and allow to run down the sides a little.

- After a few minutes, place the walnut halves on top of the cake. If you do this when the icing is at its runniest they may slide off the top!

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

- Eat.

Sticky toffee cake

One of THE foods of Christmas must be the humble date. Big fat juicy medjool dates with the texture of fruit but the taste of toffee – heaven!

I have made a couple of versions of sticky toffee pudding but this is a sticky toffee cake. The difference is that instead of toffee sauce you have toffee buttercream. This is a seasonal cake without being obviously so – a nice option for those who are fed up with fruit cakes and mince pies.

The smell of the dates when you boil them is gorgeous. I made the cake on a freezing cold snowy day but inside my home it was paradise! Here’s the dates when they’ve broken down in boiling water:

Look what happens when you add the bicarbonate of soda – it’s alchemy!

What surprised me most about this cake, was the texture. It was light and spongy – just like carrot cake, but the flavour was unmistakably sticky toffee. It’s quite one of my favourite cakes that I’ve made recently.

Ingredients

For the cake:
225g stoned dates (I used Medjool)
300ml water
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
115g unsalted butter, at room temperature
175g soft light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
175g self raising flour

For the toffee icing:
90ml (6 tablespoons) double cream
80g soft light brown sugar
25g unsalted butter
25g golden icing sugar

Optional decoration: toffee nuggets

Method

- Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/Gas mark 4.

- Line a 20cm square loose bottomed tin with greaseproof paper.

- Using scissors (I find this the least messy way) snip the dates into pieces – about the size of a small grape.

- Place the dates and the water in a saucepan. Pick a large saucepan because the mix will bubble up considerably when you stir in the bicarbonate of soda.

- Bring the dates and water to the boil and then boil, uncovered for 10 minutes.

- Remove from the heat and stir in the bicarbonate of soda.

- Leave to cool.

- Cream together the butter and sugar until smooth, pale and airy. Don’t skimp on this stage.

- Beat in the eggs and vanilla extract.

- Fold in the flour and the dates.

- Spoon into the prepared baking tin and level the surface.

- Bake for approximately 35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out virtually clean – it won’t be perfectly clean because of the gooey dates.

- Check the cake 10 minutes from the end to ensure that the top is not burning – the dates can catch. If necessary, cover the cake with foil for the last 10 minutes.

- Leave to cool in the tin until you can comfortably handle the tin and turn the cake out. Leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

- For the icing heat the cream, brown sugar and butter over a gentle heat until the sugar dissolves i.e. you cannot see the granules on the back of the spoon.

- Bring to the boil and cook, uncovered, for 4 minutes until it turns golden. Do not stir. If the mixture darkens too quickly simply remove it from the heat before the 4 minutes is up.

- Leave to cool.

- Beat the icing sugar into the icing until smooth.

- Spread over the top of the cake – you might find this easier with a wetted palette knife.

- Decorate as required.

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

- Eat.