Double Ginger Cake

Are you a ginger fan?  I am!  Both the root and the hair colour are pleasing to me.  (But maybe not THAT Prince.)  Buderim Ginger (only an hour or two up the coast from us) is very well-known in Australia (and perhaps the world) as a major grower, and a producer of delicious ginger items.  Nothing better than a cold bottle of their soft drink on a hot day.  It's Mr P.'s fave beverage!  And they make a delicious spiced version for Christmas.  Oops, sorry - I'm sounding like an ad.  Anyway, just saying how much we love ginger!

This cake is marvellously gingery, and moist and spicy.  A winner for sure.  This recipe is from Around the Table by Julia Busuttil Nishimura (yep, another one).  I made this cake for our online Cookbook Club.  So many of her recipes still to try ...  Sage, potato and pancetta galette anyone?  

iced, decorated and ready to eat

Serves 8:

ingredients:

100g./3.5 oz demerara sugar

3 large eggs

150g./5.3 oz golden syrup   see Notes

150 mL/5 oz neutral vegetable oil

50 mL/1.8 oz full-fat milk

50g./1.8 oz ginger, peeled and grated   see Notes

250g./9 oz self-raising flour

pinch of sea salt

1 Tbs ground ginger

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground cloves

1 tsp ground cardamom

pistachios, chopped, or pistachio slivers, to serve  (about 2-3 Tbs)

Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting:

250g./9 oz cream cheese

125g./4.5 oz butter (use unsalted if you wish)

100g./3.5 oz brown sugar

2 Tbs pure icing sugar

zest of a lemon

Method:

On goes your oven to 180C/356F, while you butter and line a round 23cm/9 inch with baking paper

Grab a large bowl, and whisk the sugar and eggs together till pale and well-mixed

Add the golden syrup, oil and milk, and the fresh ginger - keep whisking till smooth

Now add the flour, salt, and spices; gently whisk till beautifully combined

Pour the batter into the tin, and bake for 50-55 minutes till - yes, you guessed it - you pierce its gingery heart with a skewer and look for it to be as clean as a whistle

Leave it ruminating in the cake tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to get as cool as the Antarctic air

Now you want to make the frosting/icing:

Cream cheese goes into a large bowl, and you beat until smooth

Add the butter and keep on beating till smooth again   see Notes 

Now add in both sugars and yes, keep beating for 3-4 minutes till well-combined (and light and airy, says Julia)

Fold the lemon zest thru' your lovely mixture

Now smooth this lush icing over your cooled cake, and fling on the chopped pistachios

Keep the iced cake in the fridge for a couple of days - if you don't eat it all on the first day, or in an airtight container on the kitchen bench

Notes:

Subs. for golden syrup: honey/molasses/maple sugar/sugar/agave syrup/brown rice syrup

I used about a 10cm/4 inch piece of ginger root, and I whizzed it up in the food processor

Julia says to make the icing in a stand mixer - I don't have one - so I used my electric hand beaters

I zapped the ginger in my small food processor 'cos who wants to grate?

whisk in the ginger

batter into the buttered and lined tin

brown and beautiful after 50-ish mins. in the 180C oven

fluffy frosting/incredible icing done!

pistachios scattered over, and ready to eat

we couldn't wait :=)

nor could Boo or Mikey

(And a wee bit more info about the cult I grew up in, for those curious. We weren't even allowed to eat chocolate, in case it had been made with blood.  What the?!!  You were not allowed to say the words - 'human being', because only God was a being.  Huh?  Medical treatment was a bit sketchy; my mum died of cancer as she had refused treatments.  And on it goes ...)

    

c. Sherry M.