Despite the fact that the sun was shining for most of the weekend, it was still cold enough to want something rich and warming. When that something is a cake, even better.
This recipe revels in the name 'Boiled ginger cake' which I always think sounds rather revolting so I have dropped the 'boiled'. I found this cake in a copy of Observer Food Monthly as one of their top 50 simple recipes for amateur cooks as chosen by professional chefs. This was submitted by Sam and Sam Clark, the husband and wife team behind Moro, a restaurant in central London that serves Moorish cuisine. The recipe originally comes from The Constance Spry Cookery Book, first published in 1956.
This cake is everything that you would want it to be. It's dark but not heavy and really moist with a deep ginger kick. Even if you do what I did and completely mess up the amount of flour that you put in it. Human error aside, this is brilliantly simple. The only thing to watch out for is that black treacle doesn't get everywhere because then you will start sticking to the kitchen surfaces and that's never going to end well.
Ginger cake (serves 6)
120g butter
120g soft dark brown sugar
120g sultanas (I didn't actually use sultanas as I couldn't find any in the supermarket but it made no difference)
2 tbs water
300g black treacle
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
2 eggs
180g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
60g ground almonds
1. Pre-heat the oven to 150oC and grease an oven tin (the recipe calls for a 20cm square tin - I used two small round tins).
2. In a saucepan, melt the butter, sugar, sultanas, water and treacle over a medium heat until it starts boiling. Allow it to boil for 5 minutes, making sure to stir frequently so that it doesn't catch. 3. Put the mixture aside to cool and go and do something else for a while. It does take a surprisingly long time to reach a sensible temperature.
4. When cool, beat in the ginger and then the eggs, one at a time.
5. Sift in the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ground almonds and fold into the mixture.
6. Pour into the cake tins and bake in the oven for about an hour, until a knife comes out clean. It might take a little less than an hour depending on your oven.
7. Turn onto a wire rack to cool.
This cake will last for a couple of days in an airtight container and most definitely improves with age.
