Ginger Cake

It was my birthday 2 weeks ago and as accustomed I baked some goodies for my family and colleagues at work. A ginger cake is always welcome with the people I work with and my old standard recipe never fails. This year I decided to try another from my well-thumbed 101 Cakes & Bakes of BBC GoodFood. It's not as dark as my old one but equally delicious and very gingery as well. The icing recipe is provided below but I used the icing of the old one to drizzle on it. Nice it was.


Ginger Cake

200 g  unsalted butter
175 g  molasses sugar
3 Tbsp black treacle
150 ml  [scant 2/3 cup] milk
4 pieces stem ginger - drained and finely chopped
2 eggs - beaten
1 Tbsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp fine salt
300 g  self-raising flour

*Icing:
4 Tbsp ginger syrup (drained from the jar of the stem ginger)
300 g  golden icing sugar (confectioner's) - sifted
140 g  unsalted butter - softened
2 tsp lemon juice

1. Grease and line the bottom of a 23cm/9-inch round cake pan. Preheat oven to 160°C/fan 140°C/325°F/Gas mark 3.
2. Mix the flour, ground ginger, and salt in a bowl. Combine thoroughly. Set aside.
3. Gently melt the butter, sugar, and treacle in a saucepan. Remove from heat and transfer to a heatproof bowl. Cool slightly.
4. Beat in eggs then add the chopped stem ginger.
5. Fold in the flour mixture and make sure to combine thorougly.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and level the surface.
7. Bake for about 40-45 minutes or until a skewer poked in the centre comes out clean.
8. Cool in the cake pan for about 1 hour and then transfer to a wire rack.
9. Prick the top of the cake all over then drizzle 2 Tbsp of the ginger syrup on top.
10. Beat together the icing sugar, butter, lemon, and the remaining ginger syrup. Drizzle all over the cake.