There is a good deal of typically NS culinary waffle with the recipe. He can rival Nigella for flamboyant intros I think but as with hers I have never had one of his recipes fail. However, I was tickled by the concept of measuring sultanas by the tablespoon. It’s hard to achieve a heaped tablespoon of sultanas as once the spoon is full any extras fall off! Or at least, mine did. I decided to weigh what I measured and it came to around 45g. I would guess 50g would be a sensible amount.
Mind you, the whole lot sank into a single layer at the bottom of the cake, which was not surprising as the mixture was very liquid. I’m not sure they brought anything much to the party and would probably leave them out another time.
The cake was delicious, moist and intensely gingery with a lovely, even crumb. It was perfect with a cup of tea on a grey and misty November afternoon and, for the second slice, with a glass of fizz. It was his birthday, after all.
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Over the years I used made a lot of really good ginger cake recipes:
Banana, ginger and golden syrup cake
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Ingredients
250g self raising flour
2 level tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 level tsp bicarbonate of soda
pinch of salt
200g golden syrup
2 tblsp ginger syrup from a jar of preserved ginger
3 balls of preserved ginger from the jar, finely chopped
125g butter, cubed
125g dark soft brown sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
240ml semi skimmed milk
2 heaped tblsp (around 50g) sultanas (optional)
Method
Line the base of a 20cm square cake tin and butter the sides. Preheat the oven to 180°C / 160° fan / gas mk 3.
Sieve the flour, ginger, cinnamon, bicarb and salt into a large bowl and stir to mix together.
Put the golden syrup, ginger syrup and butter into a small saucepan and warm gently over low heat. When the butter has melted, add the chopped ginger and sultanas (if using), and turn up the heat to bubble just for a minute, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat.
In the jug used for measuring the milk, add the eggs and mix together.
Pour the liquid butter, syrup and ginger mixture into the flour mixture and stir well. Add the milk and egg mixture and stir again so that there is no trace of dry flour.
Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 35-40 minutes until done.
Remove from the oven and cool in the tin.
Keeps well wrapped in foil and is best if allowed to mature for a couple of days before eating.
Cuts into 12-16 slices.
