Monday 28 January 2013

Sticky Ginger Cake with Ginger Wine Butter Icing

 
 
If you've stayed with us at Hopton House you'll know that there is a whole cake waiting in your room on arrival. This is normally a homemade lemon drizzle. It's a fairly safe bet as it seems to be most people's favourite! However I'm always happy to make something different on request.
 
This week I was asked for a sticky ginger cake with butter icing. I'm glad I'm not asked to make this that often because it is one of my favourites, and I would end up eating far too much of it! It is so sticky & light all at the same time.


My favourite butter icing has a teaspoon of vanilla extract in it. Since my homemade vanilla extract is just rum with vanilla pods steeped in it I decided to switch it for a teaspoon of ginger wine and it works very well.

I've done this recipe in imperial measures as it's so easy to remember that way. It's easily halved if you don't want to make 4 cakes.

I bake it in 4 1lb loaf tins, lined with loaf liners. This means I have 1 cake for the guest room and the others I put in bags, seal and put in the freezer for up to a month. The cake keeps well and gets stickier over a few days.

The icing is enough to generously cover 1 cake

Cake Ingredients
8oz treacle
8oz golden syrup
8oz dark muscovado sugar
8oz butter
16oz white self raising flour
4 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon of mixed spice
2 large eggs
1/2 pint milk

Icing Ingredients ( for one cake )
2 oz very soft butter
7 oz icing sugar
1tsp ginger wine

Preheat oven to 150 degrees Celsius Fan oven, 170 degrees Celsius non fan.
Put the flour, ginger and mixed spice in a large bowl and mix well.
Put the treacle, syrup, sugar and butter in a large saucepan and heat gently until it all melts. Mix it well together.
Beat together the eggs and milk.
Pour the contents of the saucepan and then the eggs & milk into the flour and spices and beat well till it's all well combined.
Divide the mixture between the 4 loaf tins and baked for about 40 minutes until a knife comes out clean.
Leave to cool completely then make the icing by beating together the butter, sugar and ginger wine. Spread it over one cooled cake.