Ginger Syrup Cake

 

It's Winter here in Tropical North Queensland, and we've just harvested our annual crop of fresh ginger, and whilst we've dehydrated a large percentage of it, and ground it in the spice grinder to make the most fragrant ginger spice imaginable, the pink-tipped young ginger  pieces reminded me that I must make this very gingery cake. I've been working on perfecting this recipe for a long time, and now I'm very happy with the result. I hope you love it too.

This recipe is taken from David Herbert's suite of recipes, however I have played with the ingredients and doubled them from a loaf cake to a cake which serves 10 people easily. For me, for this cake to be quite perfect, it needs to be eaten with a dollop of cream (I think most ginger cakes benefit from this, it just softens the edges of the flavour and texture), but sans cream it still receives the tick of approval from anyone who eats it. Lemon icing tops it off beautifully too. 

To serve it as a dessert, I like to sometimes add thick fresh cream mixed with Greek yoghurt, and swirled with homemade strawberry jam, or just serve with ice cream.  Each time I make it, I tweak the ingredients just a little, trying to find that perfect yet elusive balance of spice and syrup that gives it it's wonderful flavour and distinctive texture. I'm really happy with the result. Ginger Cake eaten in Winter brings a special warmth to the table.

 I served this for my Mahjong friends last Tuesday afternoon, and the comments were all positive including that it was lovely to be able to really taste the ginger. After all why make a ginger cake if it isn't fragrant and with little chunks of ginger in syrup studded throughout adding to the gingery flavour.

Let's Cook:

Preheat oven to 160 degrees C.
Grease and line a medium sized square cake tin or a round 23 cm round cake tin.

Ingredients:

120 g unsalted butter
250 ml golden syrup
2 1/2 cups self-raising flour, sifted
3 heaped teaspoons ground ginger (I've added an extra teaspoon from 2 to 3 for more oomph)
1 teaspoon mixed spice
220 g caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
250 ml full cream milk
2 large free-range eggs, beaten
Icing sugar, for dusting if desired, just for presentation

Chopped Stem Ginger in Sugar Syrup. (I use about 1/4 cup of drained chopped stem ginger in syrup as a layer in the middle of the  cake.)

Ginger Syrup

1/2 cup caster sugar

125 ml water

2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger

Let's Cook

Melt butter and golden syrup over low heat; remove from heat. Sift flour, ginger, mixed spice, sugar and salt into a large bowl.
Add milk and egg and mix until smooth. Gradually add butter mixture and stir.

Pour half the batter into your baking tin. Spread a layer of drained and finely chopped Stem Ginger in Syrup over the batter, and then cover with the reminder of the batter. 

Bake for 50-55 minutes or until risen and firm to touch.

Ginger syrup:

Combine syrup ingredients in a small saucepan, boil, stir, reduce heat, and simmer for 5 minutes.
Remove cake from the oven, pierce with a skewer, and spoon over the hot syrup. Cool, dust with icing sugar.

Just halve the ingredients if you wish to make a smaller cake in a standard loaf tin.

Cook's tips:

• Adding the Stem Ginger in Syrup to the cake batter is something I love to do and brings added ginger flavours to the cake, but it is optional. It wasn't in the original recipe. If you don't have any Stem Ginger in Syrup on hand, you can use uncrystallised naked ginger or just uncrystallised ginger instead, or leave it out completely. The cake will still be delicious.
• This cake is lovely eaten on the day of baking, but it also stays fresh and delicious if baked the day before you need it. It will keep well in the refrigerator for a week, if it lasts that long.
• It is also delicious without the stem ginger layer or the ginger syrup, but with a topping of lemon icing, if you love icing like I do. Here is the link to my Ginger cake with Lemon Icing. This is perfect for morning tea.
• If you can't find Golden Syrup in your part of the world, treacle can also be used. Honey will bring a lighter flavour to the cake. 

A fragrant ginger cake batter

Ginger cake straight out of the oven in a 23cm round baking tin.

Sticky Ginger syrup added to the cake

Baked ginger cake with stem ginger studded throughout

I'm loving baking during our Winter at the moment, and this cake is the perfect bake.

Happy cooking,

Best wishes

Pauline