Ginger and Lemon Cake

Ginger Cake filled with Lemon Curd

Ingredients 

Ginger cake

• 250g Light Brown Sugar (can use dark brown sugar if you prefer)
• 250g Butter
• 320g Plain Flour
• 250ml Milk
• 4 Eggs
• 50g Root Ginger *
• 4 tsp Ground Ginger
• 2 tsp Cinnamon
• 4 tsp Baking powder
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract
• A pinch of Salt

* if you'd like a heavier/hotter ginger taste, you could add an additonal 25g of stem ginger or crystalised ginger for an additional kick.

Lemon Curd

• 50g Caster Sugar
• 50g Butter
• 1 unwaxed lemon (zest & juice)
• 2 eggs

Grease a loaf tin and place a sheet greaseproof paper (baking parchment) on the base.

Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC (Gas Mark 4).

Mix together the flour, spices (Ginger & Cinnamon), Baking powder and Salt.

Cream the butter and sugar together, add the vanilla extract, beat in the 4 eggs, grate in the fresh root ginger. Then gradually add the flour mixture and milk a little at a time whilst continuing to mix. Once you get a smooth batter, pour into the loaf/cake tin. Tap the tin on the work surface a few times to bring any air bubbles up to the surface.

Depending on the heat efficiency of your oven, it can take between 45mins and 60mins. Use a skewer or a sharp knife to pierce through the cake to check if any mix stays on the blade, if it’s still wet then bake for longer. If you find the top of the cake is getting too brown, you can turn the heat down and leave to bake for longer.

Once baked, remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 30mins or more. Turn out the cake onto a cooling rack and allow to cool for a further 30mins. Cut across the cake horizontally and separate the two layers.

Lemon Curd

Place a heat proof bowl over a saucepan of water (careful the water doesn’t touch the bottom of the bowl). Bring the water up to the boil and then turn down to a simmer.

Add the butter, sugar, lemon juice and lemon zest and whisk together until smooth and sugar begins to melt.
Lightly beat 1 whole egg and an additional egg yolk together in a cup. Add to the bowl over the pan and continue to stir until the curd thickens (should take approx 10mins).

Spread a layer of lemon curd onto the base layer of the cake, place on the top layer.

Dust with icing sugar and it’s ready to serve.

I'd imagine it would be tasty served with some warm vanilla custard. But it’s also fine just on its own with a cuppa!

Chocolate Macaroons with Orange Cream

Makes 24 (12 when sandwiched)  -  Preparation time - 1 hour  -  Cooking time - 20 min 
 

Ingredients

Macaroon (a.k.a.Pâté à macaron)

• 200g Ground Almonds
• 200g Icing Sugar
• 60g Egg whites (approx 2 eggs)

Meringue

• 60g Egg whites (approx 2 eggs)
• 150g Caster Sugar
• 3 tbsp water

• 100g Dark 70% + cocoa Chocolate (You could also use 100% cocoa solid)

Cream filling

• 200ml  of Whipping Cream
• 50g White Chocolate
• Zest of 1 Orange
• 150g Icing sugar
• Orange food colouring (optional)

Preparation

Cut two sheets of greaseproof paper (baking parchment) to cover the surface of two baking trays. Leave to one side until needed later.

Pre-heat your oven to 180ºC (Gas Mark 4), place the 2 baking trays in the oven and pre-heat those too.

Pâté  à macaron mixture

In a large bowl, blend together the ground almonds, icing sugar and 60g of your egg whites. Once combined leave to cool in the fridge while you prepare the meringue mixture.

Meringue mixture

Heat the water and sugar in a saucepan until the sugar is melted. Bring up to the boil (You can use a thermometer if you want to get it completely accurate – aiming for 115ºC).

In a separate bowl, whisk the remaining egg whites until frothy. Slowly add the sugar syrup (Warning! Be careful pouring hot sugar syrup, do not whisk while pouring, it may splash and burn). Once the syrup is all added, continue to whisk until it reaches a smooth white texture, keep whisking until stiff, it should form peaks as you remove the whisk from the mixture.

Chocolate Flavouring

In a small saucepan add a small amount of water, place a heatproof (pyrex) bowl over the top and melt the chocolate.

Macaroon mixture (3 previous stages combined)

Fold in the meringue mixture to the pate de almond, pour in the melted chocolate, stir until the mixture becomes smooth and combined.

Pour the mixture into a piping bag.

Baking

Remove the trays from the oven (remember to use an oven glove!). Place the greaseproof sheets on top. You may need to dab a small amount of mixture onto the baking tray to prevent the paper from sliding around.

Pipe out the mixture in small 4cm circles onto the paper, holding the bag upright and piping vertically from the centre of each circle. Try to leave a sufficient gap between each circle as they will expand as they settle on the tray. You should fit 12 per sheet. Leave to one side for 10mins, the mixture should settle and form a skin.

(* Apologies… I didn’t take a photo during piping, my hands were rather full at the time!)

Bake in the hot oven 180ºC (Gas Mark 4) for 8-12minutes.

Remove and allow to cool for at least 20mins before removing from the paper. Allow to cool for longer before piping the cream inside.

Cream filling

Melt the white chocolate in a bowl over a pan of water (as before). Whisk the cream, while adding the icing sugar until it becomes stiff, add the zest of the orange, and a few drops of orange food colouring (optional).

Add the cream to a piping bag and pipe onto the base of each macaroon, then sandwich together another macaroon.

Finally dust with icing sugar and serve.

They are perfect served after dinner with coffee, or an afternoon teatime treat.

(* As you'll notice from the photos, for some added texture and flavour, I also crumbled some honeycomb over the cream filling before sandwiching together)

 

Cinder Toffee a.k.a. Honeycomb

Cinder Toffee a.k.a. Honeycomb

This is a great autumnal sweet treat, great eaten just on its own, or is fantastic crumbled into some vanilla ice cream. With its golden autumn colour, a brittle crunch and sticky toffee after taste. It’s a very quick and easy recipe requiring few ingredients. Bring on the bonfire season!

Ingredients

80g Butter

160g Caster Sugar

80g Golden Syrup

2 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

1 tblsp Vegetable Oil (to grease a baking tray)

Grease a baking tray with some oil, or you can add a sheet of greaseproof paper as I have done.

Choose a medium sized saucepan, preferably one with a thick base that can hold the heat.

On a low heat, add the butter and sugar to the pan, when combined and both starting to melt, add the golden syrup and mix together.

 Once combined and the sugar has melted, turn up the heat from a simmer to boil and until the contents begin to bubble. When it has reached the desired colour of golden brown you want, turn off the heat. 

Quickly add the Bicarbonate of Soda and stir vigorously, it will go light and fluffy in a matter of seconds. Warning! It will expand very quickly.

Empty the contents of the pan onto your greased baking tray. Allow to cool for at least 15mins before tipping out of the tray, it may require cooling a bit more before you can start to cut up into pieces.

Enjoy with a cup of coffee, or serve as a sweet and crunchy addition to ice cream.