Ginger and honey loaf

Feeding on Dan Lepard’s cake the version below is adapted to our preferences.Approximate quantities to produce a cake in 20x10x7 cm loaf tin are below.  With a decent cup of tea it will easily feed 12 people, maybe more?

  • 400g liquid honey (may even be less, as our crystallized ginger is in fact in a form of stem ginger, heavily surrounded by thick, very sweet,  syrup..)
  • 100g unsalted butter, melted
  • 60ml (sunflower) oil
  • 4 eggs
  • 550g stem ginger, chopped
  • 3cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated
  • 5 tsp ground ginger (option, i think – i may use it at some point, but, for today, stem and fresh ginger are pretty strong enough
  • 1.5 tsp ground cinnamon (or coriander)
  • 330g plain flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • Extra butter and honey, for finishing
  1. Line the base and sides of a loaf tin with baking parchment.
  2. Preheat the oven to 170C/335F.
  3. Put the honey in a bowl, add melted butter, oil and eggs, then beat until smooth.
  4. Stir in the chopped ginger, grated ginger and spices, add the flour and baking powder, stir well until everything is evenly mixed, then spoon into the tin.
  5. Take small slivers of butter and lay them centrally along the length of the mixture. This will force the cake to crack along the butter line.
  6. Bake for about 70-80 minutes undisturbed, as the cake is slightly fragile and prone to collapsing until the mixture sets. Use a skewer to check that the centre is baked. For our tin size it took a long time, almost 2 hours. The loaf may burn on top slightly, or at least go very dark. This is due to all that honey, it’s part of the cake’s charm.
  7. Leave to cool in the tin. While the cake is warm, brush the top with extra honey to soften the crust.
  8. Once cold, wrap the cake well and it should keep for several days.
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