Sticky Stem Gingerbread Cake Food

STICKY GINGERBREAD

Steps:

• Set oven to 160°C Grease a 11 x 9" tin with baking parchment.
• Sift the flour, ginger, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a bowl. Place the sugar, butter, syrup and treacle in a pan and heat until the butter has just melted. Don't allow it to get too hot.
• Stir in the milk then beat in the egg. Pour in the dry ingredients and beat together.
• Pour immediately into baking tin and bake for 1-1/4 hours until firm to the touch. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, then turn out of tin and allow to cool completely.
• NB You can also add a few finely chopped pieces of stem ginger to the mix if you wish.

STICKY STEM GINGER CAKE WITH LEMON ICING

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to fan 160C/conventional 180C/gas 4. Butter and line an 18cm round, 7cm deep cake tin with greaseproof or parchment paper.
• Put the flour, bicarbonate of soda and all the spices into a large mixing bowl. Add the butter and rub it into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
• Put the sugar, treacle, syrup and milk in a medium saucepan and heat, gently stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Turn up the heat and bring the mixture to just below boiling point.
• Add the stem ginger to the flour mixture, then pour in the treacle mixture, stirring as you go with a wooden spoon. Break in the egg and beat until all the mixture is combined and it resembles a thick pancake batter. Pour this into prepared tin and bake for 50 minutes-1 hour, until a skewer pushed into the centre of the cake comes out fairly clean. Leave to cool completely in tin before turning cake out. (To freeze: wrap in greaseproof paper, then in cling film. Freeze for up to 1 month.)
• To make the icing, mix together icing sugar and lemon zest, then gradually add lemon juice until you have a smooth, slightly runny icing, adding more juice, if needed. Drizzle icing in a zig-zag pattern over surface of cake, turn cake around and drizzle again to create the cross-hatched finish (see below). Cake keeps for up to 2 weeks stored in an airtight container.

STICKY STEM GINGERBREAD CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 170C/150C/Gas 3. Line a 30x20cm/12x8in tin with baking parchment (a straight-sided brownie tin would be perfect).
• Sieve the flour into a large bowl along with the spices and mix lightly to combine.
• Put the butter, sugar, syrups and treacle into a saucepan (to make it easier to spoon out the syrup and treacle, oil a spoon first - the syrup will then just slide off). Melt everything together over a gentle heat.
• Remove from the heat and whisk in the milk, bicarbonate of soda and eggs. Gradually add the contents of the saucepan to the flour, making sure everything is well combined. You will end up with a very wet, pourable batter. Stir through the stem ginger (if using).
• Bake in the oven for between 45 minutes and an hour. When the edges have pulled back slightly from the side of the tin and the gingerbread is springy to touch, it will be done.
• Cool in the tin for half an hour and then turn out onto a wire rack. If you can, wrap and keep for a few days before eating - the gingerbread's stickiness will develop as it matures.

BLACK STICKY GINGERBREAD

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 325. Lightly grease a 9 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan and line the bottom with a piece of parchment paper that has been cut to hang over two opposite edges by a couple of inches. This overhang will make removing the cake from the pan clean and simple.
• Combine the butter, water, molasses, honey and brown sugar in a medium non-reactive saucepan and place over low heat. Stir the mixture frequently until the butter is melted, and all of the ingredients are well blended. Remove from the heat, pour into a large bowl and set aside to cool.
• Meanwhile, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, allspice and cloves, and set aside. When the molasses mixture feels just warm to the touch, add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the milk and stir to combine. Fold the dry ingredients into the batter in four additions, using big, long strokes. Don't be concerned if you can't get all the lumps out--settle for most of them! Stir in the grated ginger.
• Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake in the center of the oven for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours, or until the top of the cake springs back when touched and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool for 15 minutes, then, using the overhang of parchment, lift the cake out of the pan and cool completely on a wire rack before cutting. Well-wrapped in plastic, this gingerbread actually improves with age. If stored at room temperature, it will have a sponge-cakey texture and will keep for about 4 days. Refrigerated, it becomes stickier, denser, and wonderfully chewy and will last at least a week. Allow the cake to return to room temperature before serving. This cake is fabulous warm, and the only adornment it needs is mounds of softly whipped cream.

STICKY GINGER LEMON DRIZZLE CAKE

Steps:

• Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3. Grease and line a deep 20cm round cake tin with baking parchment. Put the flour, bicarb and all the spices in a food processor, add the butter and whizz until it has disappeared, then tip into a mixing bowl (or rub in the butter with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs).
• Put the sugar, treacle, golden syrup and milk in a saucepan and heat, stirring gently, until the sugar has dissolved. Turn up the heat and bring the mixture to just below boiling point.
• Pour the treacle mixture into the dry ingredients, stirring with a wooden spoon as you go. Beat in the egg until the mixture resembles a thick pancake batter. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 50 mins-1 hr, until a skewer poked in the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool completely in the tin.
• Split the cake through the middle. For the drizzle, stir the lemon zest and juice into the sugars, then immediately spoon all over the top half of the cake.
• For the filling, mix the lemon curd with the diced ginger. For the icing, beat together the ginger syrup, soft cheese, cream and icing sugar until thick enough to hold its shape. Spread the lemon curd filling all over the cut side of the bottom cake, dollop the creamy icing on top, then sandwich with the other half of the cake. The unfilled ginger cake will mature well for up to 3-4 days if wrapped well in baking parchment then foil.

STICKY GINGER CAKE WITH LEMON ICING

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to fan 160C/conventional 180C/gas 4. Butter and line an 18cm round, 7cm deep cake tin with greaseproof or parchment paper.
• Put the flour, bicarbonate of soda and all the spices into a large mixing bowl. Add the butter and rub it into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
• Put the sugar, treacle, syrup and milk in a medium saucepan and heat, gently stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Turn up the heat and bring the mixture to just below boiling point.
• Add the stem ginger to the flour mixture, then pour in the treacle mixture, stirring as you go with a wooden spoon. Break in the egg and beat until all the mixture is combined and it resembles a thick pancake batter. Pour this into prepared tin and bake for 50 minutes-1 hour, until a skewer pushed into the centre of the cake comes out fairly clean. Leave to cool completely in tin before turning cake out. (To freeze: wrap in greaseproof paper, then in cling film. Freeze for up to 1 month.)
• To make the icing, mix together icing sugar and lemon zest, then gradually add lemon juice until you have a smooth, slightly runny icing, adding more juice, if needed. Drizzle icing in a zig-zag pattern over surface of cake, turn cake around and drizzle again to create the cross-hatched finish.
• Cake keeps for up to 2 weeks stored in an airtight container.