Ginger Cake!

i've never made a ginger cake before, so this was exciting to make, i always seem to make chocolate or vanilla cakes, but fancied a change. this fabulous recipe comes from Margaret Costas's Four Seasons Cookery Book, which put simply, is an awesome cookbook. i'd reccomend it to anybody looking for a new cookbook, it literally covers everything from meat to fish to veg to bread and cakes. in the background of my pictures you will notice a little loaf cake, thats a loaf of banana bread, which i've made a zillion times, but is as popular as ever!

i dont really see the point in using salt and butter, next time i make this i'll just use salted butter, and save a few pence!

my batter was quite thick and dense, i don't know if its meant to be like that, it my be due to the fact that i added the butter and sugar and then the egg, instead of mixing them together like the recipe said to do. silly me for not reading the instructions properly!

the resulting cake looked pretty good, golden brown, springy and ginger-smelling, but it was quite small - only like 3cm high!

Ingredients;
175g plain flour
pinch of salt
1/2tsp ground ginger
1/4tsp cinnamon
1/4tsp mixed spice
115g butter
55g caster sugar
55g black treacle
1 egg
2tbsp hot water
1/2tsp bicarbonate of soda

sift the flour, salt and spices into a bowl.
in another bowl, cream the sugar and butter.
warm the treacle up until its quite runny, and mix into the butter and sugar. stir in the egg.
fold this into the flour.
finally, mix the bicarbonate of soda into the hot water, and stir into the flour.
pour it into a greased round cake tin, and put in the oven at 180degrees for 15 minutes.
done when its springy and golden brown.

i made some buttercream flavoured with ginger just to spice it up.

i found a jar of ginger jam my dad bought, and was inspired to put it into my icing, but i think crystallised stem ginger or the ones in syrup would be perfect as well.

Ingredients;
140g butter
280g icing sugar
3tbsp ginger jam
some water to lossen it up

just mix together all the ingredients until its thick and creamy and delicious!

i think its looks pretty darn good!

eat with a steaming mug of tea. yums!