Tower and Town, March 2021

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Cake For A Racing Fan

One of the joys of lockdown for any racing fan (horses that is!) has been the increased coverage on television. And as that coverage comes to an end, it is time for tea and cake. Try this one - it's jolly good!

200g unsalted butter diced; 175g dark brown sugar; 3 level tbsp black treacle
150ml milk; 2 large eggs beaten; 300g self-raising flour
4 balls of stem ginger*, drained and chopped; 1 tbsp ground ginger

For the icing:
150g golden icing sugar; 70g unsalted butter, softened
3 tbsp ginger syrup*, drained form the jar; 1 tsp lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to fan 140C. Butter and line base of a 23cm round cake tin with greaseproof paper. Melt the butter, sugar and treacle in a saucepan over a very low heat. Stir, cool briefly, then pour in the milk. Stir well and gradually beat the eggs into the melted mixture, then add the chopped stem ginger.

2. Sift the flour and ground ginger together, then add to the warm mixture, beating gently as you add it to avoid any lumps. Combine thoroughly to a soft dropping consistency.

3. Spoon the cake mixture into the tin. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until firm and risen. Remove and leave in the tin for an hour, then carefully decant onto a wire rack. (You can freeze the cold cake for up to 2 months at this point)

4. For the icing, beat together the icing sugar, butter, 1tbsp ginger syrup and the lemon juice. Skewer the top of the cake all over; then pour 2 tbsp of syrup over the cake. Allow to soak in, then spread over the icing. N.B. the original recipe has double the quantities for the icing, but we found this too much!

David Du Croz