Syrupy Chinese Ginger Cake

Submitted by Kates Kitchen

"This is an absolute winning recipe of my mum's. It really is divine and knocks people out."

 

• Ready In: 1hr 30mins
• Ingredients: 10
• Serves: 12

ingredients

• 1 cup of mild crystallized ginger
• 375 ml water
• 115 g brown sugar
• 125 ml honey
• 115 g brown sugar, extra
• 1⁄4 cup white sugar
• 125 g butter, softened
• 2 large eggs
• 225 g self raising flour
• 125 ml milk

directions

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C (340F) and butter a 20cm. (8") non-stick cake tin.
2. First, prepare the ginger. In a medium saucepan, combine the ginger, water, brown sugar and honey and bring to the boil. Simmer for 10 minutes then cool. Set aside.
3. Using an electric mixer, cream the brown sugar, white sugar and butter together until thick and creamy. Remove the bowl from the mixer and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well by hand after each addition.
4. Add the flour and milk and stir gently but thoroughly. Remove the ginger from the syrup and slice thinly, then add 3/4 of the ginger to the cake, stirring to distribute the ginger.
5. Pour the cake batter into the prepared tin and bake at 170°C (340F) for one hour, or until the cake appears firm and dry on top and yields gently to pressure when pressed in the centre with your finger. Pour the ginger syrup over the hot cake and allow the cake to absorb the syrup. When the syrup has been absorbed, remove the cake tin.
6. To serve, spoon some thick, pure cream on top of the cake and decorate with the remaining slices of ginger. Alternatively, serve the cream on the side of the cake, with the ginger slices folded through the cream or on top of the cake.

Reviews

[CarsonM]

Loved the texture - the cake-to-syrup ratio was just right, such that the cake absorbed every drop of the syrup and no part of it felt dry or under-moistened. It's pleasantly gooey and sticky, without being drippy, and the chunks of crystallized ginger give it a nice bit of crunch. I liked the flavor of the syrup; the combination of honey and brown sugar gave the cake a vaguely Middle-Eastern feel, but flavored with ginger instead of, say, rosewater. Very easy to make, too - and I'd say that the whipped cream is vital for this cake (I chopped my remaining ginger and folded it in). Somehow it elevates it to another level, maybe because the whipped cream is comparatively light and refreshing next to the dense syrupy cake. Amazingly, given that the ginger permeates the cake, syrup and cream, I didn't find the ginger flavor really jumping out at you (maybe because it uses crystallized rather than fresh), but I actually didn't mind that - the ginger was just a very nice subtle background flavor. Kids, I'm sure, would love this cake, and I bet it would also be awesome served hot with vanilla ice cream.