Fresh Ginger Cake

Fresh ginger cake

I have baked and eaten a few different ginger cakes – ginger parkins with oatmeal,  or traditional ginger cakes using dried ground ginger. Quite delicious, with most recipes using butter, dried ginger and often heavy on treacle.

This recipe (by Rose Carrarini of Rose Bakery in Paris) which she developed in Japan using fresh ginger, takes the cake to a different level. I saw this recipe in the weekend Financial Times a few years ago and it has been on my “to try” list.

Am pleased to report that the trial was wildly successful. Despite the copious quantity of fresh ginger, the cake isn’t spicy and is soft and moist. It’s clearly not for someone who doesn’t like ginger, but surprisingly the boys loved it, but then they love ginger beer too.

I did make a few small changes to the original recipe. I somewhat reduced the fresh ginger because I was worried it might be too overpowering. I also omitted the dried ginger in the icing and cut back on the total quantity of icing. Although the cake is perfectly delicious on its own,  I do recommend a little trickle of lemony icing as it adds a nice counterbalancing tang.

It’s a very simple recipe to put together and doesn’t involve any elbow grease. The trickiest part is measuring the golden syrup without making a mess (see note below to help with that).

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Fresh Ginger Cake
This is a very moreish cake. It helps that fresh ginger is good for you, and with the addition of wholemeal flour, the guilt factor is somewhat reduced. It also keeps well, and in fact, improves with keeping. I froze a small portion for a rainy day! Carrarini suggests eating leftovers, toasted and buttered. We didn't try that, but it does sound like a good idea.
Cuisine Modern British
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 50 minutes
Servings
diameter cake
Ingredients
For the cake
For the icing:
Cuisine Modern British
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 50 minutes
Servings
diameter cake
Ingredients
For the cake
For the icing:
Instructions
  1. Grease a 9” (23cm) cake tin (with oil or butter) and lined the base with baking or parchment paper.
  2. Preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan).
  3. In a saucepan, measure out the golden syrup, brown sugar, marmalade, and oil. Heat and stir until melted. Take off the heat.
  4. To the saucepan, add the grated ginger, then the boiling water with the soda. Pour this mixture into a large bowl.
  5. Sieve all the dry ingredients together and add to the batter in the bowl.
  6. Stir in the flour mixture gently.
  7. Finally, fold in the beaten eggs.
  8. Pour the batter into the lined cake tin and bake in the centre of the oven for about 45-50mins. After 45 minutes check the centre with a skewer or knife for doneness. Once the knife comes out clean it’s done. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes before inverting onto a cooling rack.
  9. Once the cake has cooled make the icing. For the icing, place the icing sugar in a small bowl and add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. Beat together with a small whisk or spoon, until you have a smooth glaze. Add a little more lemon juice so that the icing drip off thickly when the spoon is lifted. Drizzle over cake.
  10. If well wrapped, it improves with time and is apparently best a few days later, but we will never know as it was gone in two!
Recipe Notes
  • To measure the golden syrup - Use a large greased spoon to take out the golden syrup from the tin. Whatever you do, it's nearly impossible not to get some syrup around the edges and sides of the tin - just wipe it with a clean cloth before putting away.
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