BRITISH GINGER CAKE RECIPE RECIPES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 180°C, fan 160°C, gas 4. Grease a 20cm square cake tin and line with baking parchment.

  In a food processor, whizz together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, bicarbonate of soda and butter until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Set aside.

  Put the golden syrup, black treacle, light brown sugar and diced stem ginger in a pan. Heat gently until all the sugar has dissolved, then cook for another minute over a high heat and remove.

  Beat the eggs and milk into the syrup mixture, then mix into the flour and butter mixture. Pour into the cake tin and bake for 45 minutes.

  Meanwhile, stir the ginger syrup and 2 tablespoons boiling water into the icing sugar until smooth. Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool for 10 minutes, then pierce all over with a skewer. Pour over the icing sugar mixture and leave to set before serving.

   

  Cook's tip: if you have leftover slices that are going slightly stale, use them in a gingery version of a bread and butter pudding. Just switch white bread slices with the ginger loaf slices and sprinkle chopped crystallised ginger over them instead of sultanas.

Steps:

• Cut a rectangle of non stick baking parchment to fit the base and sides of a 30x23x4cm/12x9x1½in traybake tin or roasting tin. Grease the tin and then line with the paper, pushing it neatly into the corners of the tin.
• Preheat the oven to 160C/325F/Gas 3.
• Measure all the ingredients for the traybake into a large bowl and beat well for about two minutes until well blended. A hand-held electric mixer is best for this but of course you can also mix it by hand with a wooden spoon. (Treacle can be difficult to weigh accurately as it tends to stick to the scale pan. Weighing the treacle on top of the sugar overcomes this problem.)
• Turn the mixture into the prepared tin, scraping the sides of the bowl with a plastic spatula to remove all the mixture. Level the top gently with the back of the spatula.
• Bake in the preheated oven for about 35-40 minutes, or until the traybake springs back when pressed lightly with a finger in the centre and is beginning to shrink away from the sides of the tin. Allow the traybake to cool a little, then remove the cake from the tin by easing the paper away from the sides of the tin. Turn onto a cooling rack, remove the lining paper and leave to cool completely.
• To make the icing, mix the icing sugar and syrup together in a small bowl until smooth and a spreading consistency. Pour the icing over the cake, spread gently to the edges with a small palette knife and sprinkle with the chopped stem ginger to decorate.
• Allow the icing to set before slicing the traybake to serve.