GINGER GUINNESS CAKE

In recent years I have made a lot of cakes.  It all began with the charity cake stall for the BBC Children in Need appeal which we held at work for the first time more than ten years ago.  That’s when I started looking for new recipes.  Then I joined the Clandestine Cake Club and started my own branch of the CCC in France in 2014.  .

My hunger for new and interesting recipes grew and grew and since then I have made an awful lot of cake.  Some of them have been, frankly, awful, but occasionally up pops an absolute gem.  Like this one.

It comes from the Sainsbury’s baking recipe collection volume 2.  I have been unable to find the recipe anywhere on the internet so I can’t give a link to the original.  In the book it’s called a Ginger Stout Cake but as I used Guinness (the only stout available in our local supermarket in France), I have renamed it.  The other reason for renaming it is that it will be up there with my other very favourite cake to make for a birthday, cake stall or any other reason, the Chocolate Guinness Cake by Nigella Lawson.

I have written the recipe here as per the amendments I made to suit the ingredients I could get hold of.

The moment I cut into it I knew it was going to be good.  After the first mouthful I thought “wow!”.  Nick, who is not a great cake lover, thought it was wonderful, had two slices straight away and banned me from offering it to anyone else so that he could get his fair share of the rest, something previously unheard of.

The cake was moist, soft, deliciously spiced and strong on ginger flavour.  With the slightly glossy glaze from the ginger syrup and dotted with diced stem ginger, it looked classy and grown up and needed no other decoration.  I urge you to try it!

Ingredients.

200g unsalted butter

200ml Guinness (or other stout)

200g caster sugar

50g dark soft brown sugar

3 tbsp black treacle

2 tsp ground ginger

½ tsp mixed spice

2 large eggs

75ml natural yoghurt*

25ml milk*

300g self raising flour

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

For the topping

3 balls of preserved stem ginger, diced

3 dessert spoons syrup from the jar

Method

Put the Guinness, sugars, butter, treacle, ground ginger and mixed spice into a large saucepan and heat gently until the butter has melted, without letting it boil.  Remove from the heat and set aside to cool slightly.

Preheat the oven to 180°C / 160°fan / gas mk 4.  Butter and line a 23cm round, deep springform cake tin**.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, yoghurt and milk, then pour the cooled sugar mixture into the bowl.  Sift in the flour and bicarb and, using an electric whisk, beat until well combined.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for about an hour until done.  The cake should lose its wobble in the middle but not be too firm.

Remove from the oven and whilst still warm drizzle over the ginger syrup and dot with the diced ginger.  Cool in the tin and remove when cold.

(*The original recipe uses 100ml buttermilk but I substituted a mixture of yoghurt and milk.)

(**The original recipes uses a 20cm square tin and bakes the cake for 40-45 minutes.)

Cuts into 12-16 slices, but allow two slices each!

GOOSEBERRY AND ELDERFLOWER CAKE

My little gooseberry bush in France produced a couple of handfuls of gooseberries this year, against all odds.  The soil is not at all good and we struggle to grow many things, apart from tomatoes, cucumbers, broad beans and courgettes.  In fact it’s interesting to see what grows and what doesn’t.  My rhubarb plant, a precious cutting from my mother’s old rhubarb bush that produced tons of fruit each year, finally gave up the ghost this year, succumbing to the heat and the stony, clay soil.  But my gooseberry bush is showing promise and with some of the fruit I made this cake.

It’s an adaption of a recipe in the book “make me a cake as fast as you can” by Miranda Gore-Browne, a GBBO contestant of a few years ago.  It’s a whisked sponge, fat free and therefore very light.  The gooseberries are cooked until soft to create a compote for the filling and the juice is used as a glaze for the cake.

The recipe suggests that you could sprinkle icing sugar on the cake instead so I did both.  I then decided it would benefit from a little decoration but of course by now elderberry flowers are long since gone so I used some flowers from one of our rose bushes and leaves from my gooseberry bush.  I was very pleased with the result.

The cake was delicious, gooseberry and elderflower being a gorgeous combination.  The cake was flavoured with elderflower cordial as per the recipe but I used an elderflower liqueur called St-Germain to flavour the cream.

St-Germain is a French liqueur which I have to say is delicious.  It’s my current favourite digestif and ever since I first learned of its existence in Phil’s brilliant blog, “as strong as soup”, have been on the lookout for a bottle.  Having searched the shelves in French supermarkets I finally tracked down a rather dusty bottle lurking at the back of a shelf in my local Tesco!  I love the rather art deco style of the bottle.

Gooseberry and elderflower cake

100g caster sugar

4 large eggs

100g SR flour, sifted

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp lemon zest (about half a small lemon)

2 tbsp elderflower cordial

For the filling

100 ml whipping cream

1 tbsp elderflower cordial **

200g gooseberries

40g caster sugar

1 tbsp water

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C / 160° fan / gas mk 4. Grease and base line two 20cm sandwich tins.

Using an electric whisk or stand mixer, whisk together the sugar and eggs for 3-4 minutes. The mixture should triple in volume.

Sift in the flour and bp and fold in gently with the lemon zest.

Transfer to the tins and bake for about 10 mins, until done. On removing from the oven, sprinkle the cordial over the cakes and leave to cool in the tins for 5 mins. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the filling, put the gooseberries, sugar and water into a small pan and cook until the berries are just soft but still holding their shape. Remove the berries from the pan using a slotted spoon and set aside. Turn up the heat and boil the syrup for a few mins until thickened. Leave to cool.

Whip the cream until thick and fold in the elderflower cordial.

Put one cake onto a serving plate and spread the gooseberries over it. Spread the cream on top of the berries. Put the other cake on top and pour the cooled gooseberry syrup over to glaze. (Or simply dust with icing sugar and decorate with flowers.)

** I used St Germain elderflower liqueur in the cream.

Cuts into 8-12 slices.