Adapted from the Daily Mail’s “Three-ginger fire cake” April 2017.
Continuing on our ginger theme as I gradually use up the endless supply of fresh ginger in my fridge brings me to this next recipe. This triple-ginger traybake is much lighter than the typical ginger cakes I’ve had in the past, which can be quite heavy, but it retains that sumptuous moisture. Whilst triple ginger may sound extravagant, the ground ginger provides that toasty warmth within the cake batter itself, the fresh ginger boosts that warm spice up with a more pungent tang, and the stem ginger chunks give a heavenly, chewy bit of bite. For this reason I recommend chopping the stem ginger very roughly so they stay in their chewy chunks.
Ingredients
Butter or margarine, 50g
Golden syrup, 100g
Date purée, 100g
Muscovado sugar, 80g
Whole milk, 80ml
Stem ginger, roughly chopped, 60g (about two balls)
1 egg, lightly beaten
Fresh ginger, peeled & grated, 3 teaspoons
Self-raising flour, 200g
Ground ginger, 5 teaspoons
Mixed spice, 1 teaspoon
Allspice, 1 teaspoon
Chilli powder or flakes, 1 teaspoon
Bicarbonate of soda, 1 teaspoon
Stem ginger syrup from the jar, to finish
Icing sugar, to finish
Method
Preheat the oven to 160°C. Line a square baking tin / brownie tin with greaseproof paper.
Place dates in a small bowl or dish and cover with boiling water. Let sit 5 minutes.
With a hand blender or in a food processor, blend them, with the water, to form a smooth paste.
Place butter, sugar, syrup and date blend into a medium sized saucepan over a low heat. Stir gently until all melted and combined. Leave to cool off a little.
Add the milk and stem ginger. Beat in the egg and the fresh ginger.
Add in all dry ingredients and beat to combine until smooth.
Pour into the tin and bake for 25 minutes until just coming away from the edges of the tin, and springy to the touch.
While still warm, prick with a skewer and drizzle over some stem ginger syrup. Let cool.
If desired, finish off the cooled cake with some water icing or simply dust with icing sugar.
