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
- Line the base and sides of a loaf tin with baking parchment.
- Preheat the oven to 170C/335F.
- Put the honey in a bowl, add melted butter, oil and eggs, then beat until smooth.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Leave to cool in the tin. While the cake is warm, brush the top with extra honey to soften the crust.
- Once cold, wrap the cake well and it should keep for several days.
