Delicious Sticky Ginger Cake

Delicious Sticky Ginger Cake

This is my mother's ginger cake recipe and I have loved it most of my life. I always find other people's ginger cake not gingery enough and I figured out why when I finally nabbed the recipe off her There is a lot of ginger in this. If you don't like it quite so gingery, alter the amount to your own taste.

This recipe is also one of the easiest cake recipes there is - no folding, no need for electric whisks, just a couple of sauce pans and a flick of the wrist. It turns out perfectly every time.

The recipe is enough to make one huge cake, but my mother recommends making two smaller cakes in loaf tins because otherwise the cake sinks in the middle and it's harder to make sure the middle is done and the outside is not over done :).

I finally remembered to take a picture of the finished product, but, as you can see, not before I had given my hubby a slice :).

Equipment

• 1 large saucepan
• 1 small (milk) saucepan
• 1 bowl
• scales
• spatula
• 2 2lb loaf tins (approx 21x11x7cm | 8x4x3inches)
• loaf tin liners or grease proof paper or baking parchment
• small hand whisk or fork

This recipe uses the hob to heat ingredients, you could probably use a microwave if you are more familiar with that - just use microwave proof bowls instead of saucepans.

Ingredients

• 8oz | 230g | 2/3 cup Black Treacle (Molasses)
• 8oz | 230g | 1 cup Soft Spread (you can use butter, but a baking spread makes a lighter cake)
• 8oz | 230g | 1 1/4 cup Dark Brown Sugar
• 1 tbsp Golden Syrup (US peeps, if it's not in the baking section, try the international section - at a push you could use corn syrup)
• 1/2 pt (UK) | 285ml | 1 1/3 cup milk (I used semi skimmed, but the recipe probably originally used whole milk - so just use what you have)
• 1/2 tspn Bicarbonate of Soda (Baking Soda)
• 12oz | 340g | 2 3/4 cup self raising (rising) flour
• 25g | 4 tbsp ginger (yes that really is table spoons not teaspoons)
• 2 tspn cinnamon
• 1 large egg

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 150C | 300F | Gas Mark 2.
2. Put the loaf tin liners in the loaf tins or line the tins with you lining of choice. (You really don't want to try and get this cake out of an unlined tin - it is very soft and moist ;)).
   
   
3. Put the treacle, soft spread, brown sugar and syrup into the large saucepan.
   
   
4. Heat gently until these all melt together, stiring at times to make sure it all mixes.
   

   

   

   Don't stop stiring yet!

   This is what you're after

5. Measure out the flour, ginger and cinnamon into a bowl and put aside for later.
6. Put the milk and egg into the small saucepan and beat the egg into the milk using a small hand whisk or a fork.
7. Add the flour, ginger and cinnamon to the treacle mixture in the saucepan and stir together.
   

   

   

   Stir gently in circles to mix in flour them beat
   vigorously until all the lumps are gone.

   This is what you are after

8. Heat the milk/egg mixture gently to blood temperature (easiest way to measure is to stick your little finger in every now and then and when it feels like it isn't cold it's at the right temperature :)).
9. Add the bicarb to the milk mixture and stir.
10. Add the milk mixture to the treacle mixture and stir together.
    

    

    

    Stir as quickly as you can, but take it easy.

    There will be bubbles showing as the bicard activates

11. Pour the cake batter into the two loaf tins.
    
    
12. Put the cakes in the oven and bake for about 1hr (stick a skewer into the middle of the cake to check it is done, if not let it cook a little longer).
13. Take out of the oven and allow to cool in the tins until cool enough to handle, then turn out onto a wire cake rack to finish cooling.

The cake keeps very well, easily up to a week and even up to 2 weeks (if it lasts that long :D) - just pop into an air tight tin. This is a moist cake, so it actually improves with age.