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| An oldie, but a goodie |
When the virtue of
patience was being dished out, I was too darned impatient to wait in line.
If only I’d known...
... You see, the thing
with Jamaican Ginger Cake is, that while it takes under an hour from start to
finish, it is best wrapped and left for 24 hours for the flavours to develop.
All those spices
smell so good. I know from experience that I will probably unwrap a little
corner to take a peak - just to make sure the Alchemy is working... (I’ve been
know to dig up seeds to see if they have started developing roots yet...).
Before you know it,
I’ll be cutting a wee slice - just a taste - and that tiny taste will call for
another... the irresistible warmth of the spices... the tender sticky crumb and
I’ll never learn just how good it can be when I include that missing
ingredient, patience!
Up the ginger
quotient by increasing the amount of allspice and fresh ginger to taste. A
little finely chopped stem ginger stirred into the batter also heats things up
a bit.
Will I be able to
resist this time? We’ll see...
For one irresistible 1 x 2lb loaf you will
need...
... to preheat the oven to 160˚C
Ingredients
a little butter for greasing a 2lb loaf tin
225g plain flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon of ground allspice* (not mixed
spice!)
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon fine table salt
100g treacle
100g golden syrup
100g dark brown sugar
100g butter
1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
125mls buttermilk**
150g unsweetened stewed apple***
1 egg, beaten
Method
Grease and baseline a 2lb loaf
tin (or line with a loaf tin liner).
Place the flour, bicarbonate of
soda, ground spices and salt in a large mixing bowl.
Weigh the treacle and golden
syrup directly into a medium saucepan and add the sugar, butter, fresh ginger
and vanilla extract and place over a low heat just until the butter has
melted into the other ingredients. Remove from the heat immediately – at no
point should it simmer or boil.
Meanwhile, mix together the
buttermilk, stewed apple and beaten egg. Add this mixture to the flour mixture
in the bowl and stir with a whisk until combined into a thick batter.
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| Melt, mix, stir, pour - it's that simple ! |
Add the warm mixture from the
saucepan and whisk until combined into a smooth, fairly runny batter. Pour into
the prepared loaf tin and transfer to the preheated oven.
Bake for 40 minutes or until
well risen and the surface bounces back when lightly pressed. A cocktail stick
inserted in the middle should come out clean, with no crumbs clinging. (Replace
in the oven for a further 5 minutes if necessary and test again.)
Leave in the tin until
completely cold, then remove from the tin and wrap in a layer of baking paper,
then in cling film. Leave for at least 24 hours for the flavours to develop
before cutting into thick slices and devouring with a decent cup of tea or
coffee.
It is not the most beautiful
cake in the world, but a dusting of icing sugar works wonders against the dark
crumb of the cake, or you could drizzle with a water icing made according to
the instructions on the packet.
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| Not the most beautiful cake in the world. A dusting of icing sugar works wonders ! |
*Allspice is a gorgeous warm aromatic dried berry – also called Jamaican
Pepper – I grind the berries as I need them as they have a longer shelf life
than ready ground – and there is the bonus of the lovely aroma they release
when crushed.
Mixed spice is ... um... a mixture of spices.
**If you don’t have buttermilk, simply use the same amount of fresh milk
to which you have added a generous squeeze of fresh lemon juice.
***For the stewed apple, simply peel, core and slice a large Bramley
apple or similar (prepared weight approximately 200g. Place the flesh of the
apple in a small saucepan with 2 tablespoons of water, apple juice or cider.
Place over a medium heat. Cover and allow the apple to steam in its own juices –
stirring occasionally - for about 15 minutes or until completely soft and the
slices of apple can be easily mashed with a fork. Mash to a reasonably smooth
puree and leave to cool before using as above.
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