Sticky ginger and orange cake

I take all my blog photos with my phone these days. In fact all my blogging is now done from my phone since my laptop barely functions anymore. It's something I wasn't comfortable with for a long time as I know I don't put much effort into photography if I'm just using my phone, whereas I generally used to make an attractive set up when I used my proper camera.

However this year I decided to embrace my laidback approach. After all my blog is a casual baking journal, not an aspiring professional food blog, so any form of documentation will do, whether it's (vaguely) styled or just a very quick snap before the cake ends up in my mouth.

This cake is falls into the latter category. It's unfair to judge it on its unassuming appearance and uninspired photography as it is genuinely a really lovely, comforting hug of a cake. 

As with most ginger cakes this cake improved with age. It tasted so much better on the second and third day (photo above is day 2 and below is day 3.) It developed the glorious, soft, stickiness associated with a great ginger cake and the spices became more intense. I've never added orange to a ginger cake before and found it was a lovely addition. It lifted the ginger and added a fresh zing to the cake. Although I ate the cake plain, I bet it would taste amazing served with custard as a cosy, winter pudding.

Needless to say this cake smelled gorgeous in the oven. I baked it whilst watching some terrible Christmas films on tv last weekend and it made my house feel a little bit festive. Bring on all the festive, spiced bakes!

Sticky ginger and orange cake

Recipe from Mary Berry's Baking Bible.

The cake:

100g (4oz) golden syrup

100g (4oz) black treacle

250ml (9 fl oz) water

100g (4oz) softened butter (I used Stork baking margarine)

100g (4oz) caster sugar

Grated zest of 1 orange

1 large egg, beaten

275g (10oz) plain flour

1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda 

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger (I made it a heaped teaspoon for more kick)

The icing:

100g (4oz) icing sugar

Juice of 1 orange (I used less than one half)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C /fan 160C/ gas 4. Grease and line a 23cm (9") deep round tin with greaseproof paper.

Pour the syrup, treacle and water into a small pan and bring to the boil.

Meanwhile, put all the remaining cake ingredients into a large bowl and mix with a stand or hand mixer until well combined. Add the syrup mixture and beat again until smooth (it'll look lumpy as hell initially, but honestly it'll smooth out!)

Pour the cake mixture into the tin and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for about 50 minutes or until well risen and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. (I took mine out at 40 minutes as it was definitely ready, so keep an eye on it.)

Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turn out, peel off the paper and leave to finish cooling on a wire rack.

For the icing, mix together the icing sugar with enough orange juice to make a smooth, fairly thick pouring consistency. Pour onto the cooled cake over a wire rack to any catch drips (or be like me and disregard this step and enjoy the icing puddles which develop around the plate. It's all good!) Decorate with sprinkles if you want to pimp it up or just leave the icing to set for 1 hour.

Dad's birthday clootie dumpling

Last weekend Dad requested a clootie dumpling for his birthday bake of choice. For all the non Scottish folk reading, this is basically a fruit cake boiled in a cloth i.e. a "cloot."

Clootie dumplings, also known as clootie puddings or duffs, can vary in recipe. Some people include suet and breadcrumbs or extra fruit such as grated apple, dates or orange zest, but the recipe I use (from my Aunty Janice) is fairly plain: lots of treacle and golden syrup, spice and sultanas.

It's one of those old fashioned, heavy, wintery puds which will divide opinion. I was unsure whether it would appeal to my nephews so I also baked a plain sponge cake, but I think the pudding went down pretty well with everybody.

My clootie was a bit drier in texture compared to the last one I made a few years ago (probably because I accidently almost boiled it dry!) but the flavour was still great - treacley, spiced and comforting with juicy bursts of sultanas.

Perfect served warm from the pot with a dollop of ice cream.

Aunty Janice's clootie dumpling

Janice's method is to wrap the mixture in a greased and floured layer of greaseproof paper before wrapping up in a damp dishcloth to boil, which means all the grubbiness goes on the paper instead of the cloot. It makes washing up easier!

1lb plain flour

8oz margarine

6oz caster sugar

1 lb dried fruit such as sultanas or raisins

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 beaten egg

2 dessert spoons treacle

2 dessert spoons golden syrup

enough milk to moisten

Lay out two large lengths of greaseproof paper, overlapped - enough to wrap round your pudding which will end up roughly 7 inches in diameter. Thoroughly grease with margarine (including the overlap to help it stick) and dust with a coating of flour. This will form the clootie's "skin." Dampen a plain dishcloth and lay it out. 

Put a flat, heat proof side plate in the bottom of a large, heavy based pot (for your clootie to sit on.) Fill the pot with about 1L water and put on the hob to warm up at a low heat.  

In a very large bowl rub together the flour and margarine. Stir in the sugar, fruit, bicarbonate of soda and spices. In a small saucepan heat up the treacle and syrup until warm then remove from the heat and add a drop of milk to cool it down. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the egg and cooled treacle mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon until everything is combined and add a little more milk if needed. The mixture should stay fairly thick though, reluctant to drop off the spoon.

Heap the mixture into the centre of the greaseproof paper sheet then gather the paper edges up over the mixture. Tie tightly together with a length of string, leaving about an inch of space between the mixture and where you tie to allow it to grow during cooking. Wrap the damp dishcloth over the top and tie the ends together on top of your previous tie.

Pop the clootie into the pot and add more water to the pot until it's about half way up the pudding. Put the lid on top and leave to boil at a low heat, with the plate lightly rattling at the base of the pot, for 3 hours. Check on it every half hour or so to top up with more water if necessary. Do not boil it dry!

After 3 hours remove from the pot and untie from the cloth and paper. It's best served warm with cream, ice cream or custard, but it is also lovely cold. 

Sticky gingerbread

Last week I had an urge to make gingerbread. I don't know why, as ginger isn't my spice of choice, but I couldn't shake off the thought of a wintery spiced gingerbread.

 

The batter for this loaf tasted so good, it's a wonder any of it reached the tin. It seems I like ginger more than I thought.

The recipe did state to leave the cake a day before eating but I have no willpower. The smell from the oven was too much for me and I had to have a piece there and then. The cake texture was very smooth and it tasted more of treacle than ginger which worried me. However all was ok the next day. The flavours were much more balanced, the cake developed more of a crumb texture and the crust started to feel sticky. It didn't have much of a chance to get stickier as we ate all the cake. Moral of the story: leave your gingerbread till the next day to eat.

 

Sticky gingerbread

Recipe from The Great British Book of Baking, p.238

 

225g self-raising flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tbsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground mixed spice

115g unsalted butter, chilled and diced

115g black treacle

115g golden syrup

115g dark brown muscovado sugar

275ml milk (it says not to use skimmed, but I only had semi-skimmed milk)

1 medium free range egg, beaten

 

Heat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Grease and line a 900g loaf tin, about 26 x 13 x 7cm. Sift together the flour, bicarb. soda, ginger, cinnamon and mixed spice into a large bowl. Add the diced butter and rub into the flour mix using your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Gently warm the treacle and syrup in a pan until melted and runny but not hot. Set aside until lukewarm. Put the sugar and milk into another pan and heat gently, stirring well to dissolve the sugar. Leave to cool until lukewarm, then whisk the milk into the flour mixture, quickly followed by the treacle mixture and the egg, to make a smooth thick batter, the consistency of double cream.

 

Put the mixture into the prepared tin and bake in the centre of the oven for about 45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the loaf comes out clean. Leave the loaf to cool completely on a wire rack before turning out. Wrap the loaf in foil and leave for at least a day before cutting; it will get stickier the longer it is kept. Store in an air-tight container.