This is a wonderful moist cake that never lasts long in my house. It is delicious iced or just sliced and served with butter. It reminds me of a fond friend and colleague André Goddard who used to love this when I brought it into Faculty Meetings.

 

225 grams / 8 ounces self raising flour

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)

1 tablespoon ground ginger – this is not a misprint!

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon mixed spice

115 grams / 4 ounces butter

115 grams  / 4 ounces dark muscovado sugar. (I used golden caster sugar and it was fine)

115 grams / 4 ounces black treacle

115 grams / 4 ounces golden syrup

250 millilitres / 9 fluid / 1 cup ounces whole milk

85 grams /3 ounces drained stem ginger finely grated*

1 egg

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F

Line a 2 pound loaf pan or an 18cm round, 7cm deep cake tin.

Put the flour, bicarb ( baking soda) and all the spices into a large mixing bowl. Add the butter and rub it into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Mix in the grated stem ginger.

Put the sugar, treacle, golden syrup and milk in a medium saucepan and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved. Turn up the heat and bring the mixture to just below boiling point. Pour in the treacle mixture into the flour mixture stirring as you go with a wooden spoon.

Beak in the egg and beat until all the mixture is combined and resembles a thick batter.

Pour this into the prepared tin and bake for about 35-40 minutes until a skewer pushed into the centre of the cake comes out cleanly.

*Stem ginger is root ginger that is preserved in sugar syrup. It is very difficult to find in the US and crystallized ginger is the closest comparative. 4 pieces of stem ginger is about 4 ounces of crystallized ginger. For stem ginger syrup use 4 tablespoons light corn syrup plus  ¼ teaspoon ground ginger.

To ice this cake mix together

 50grams / 2ounces of icing sugar

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Mix until you have a smooth, slightly runny icing. Add more juice if needed. Drizzle the icing over surface of the cake