Sticky Ginger Cake

I apologise for my absence from the blog over the last couple of months – I do actually have a genuine (and pretty solid) excuse in that I was struck down with pneumonia at the beginning of December which resulted in a lengthy hospital stay and many weeks of recuperation. In fact, I’m still recuperating and as such have hardly been able to cook or bake much beyond heating things in the oven or on the hob.

Kneading dough is strictly prohibited – especially after an attempt to help making biscotti at Christmas left me shattered and unable to move, even to scrape the dough off my fingers.

So I wanted a recipe that required very little effort but delivered on flavour – and also was warming and comforting at the same time and I stumbled across an enticing looking one on the BBC Good Food site. After a bit of tinkering I had the recipe I was looking for – this ginger cake is surprisingly light in texture but is wonderfully sticky (and gets stickier the next day) and is just the ticket for dark winter nights. You can have it on its own or as a dessert served with caramel sauce and ice cream and it also freezes really well. Adjust the amount of spice to suit – I like mine nice and fiery!

One thing to be aware of – the cake looks very wobbly as it approaches the end of the cooking time, don’t be tempted to leave it too long! Insert a skewer in to the centre and if it comes out clean then the cake is done – it will continue cooking in the tin.

Ingredients

• 60g butter
• 125g golden syrup
• 100g plain flour
• 25g self raising flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 3-4 heaped tsps of ground ginger
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 100g molasses sugar (or caster sugar if you prefer)
• Pinch of salt
• 125ml milk
• 1 egg, beaten
• Crystallised ginger to decorate (optional)

Method

Grease and line a 20cm cake tin (or a 2lb loaf tin if you prefer) and preheat your oven to Gas Mark 3/170c.

In a small saucepan, slowly melt the butter and golden syrup together then set aside to cool slightly.

Sift the flours, spices, and soda into a mixing bowl then add the sugar and salt and stir to combine – if you are using molasses sugar it is worth spending a bit of time breaking up the big sticky lumps that will form (lumpy batter awaits otherwise!).

Mix in the milk and beaten egg and stir until you have a smooth batter then slowly add in the melted butter/syrup mixture.

Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 50-55 mins until firm to the touch (and clean to the skewer test) then remove and allow to cool in the tin for five minutes or so before turning out onto a cooling rack.

Once cool, cut into squares, adorn with crystallised ginger (if using) and enjoy with any variety of sweet accessories – whisky cream, salted caramel sauce, ice cream, toffee sauce, chantilly, the list goes on…..

Ginger cake with salted caramel sauce and ice cream