Gorgeous Sticky Ginger cake

This is one for my grandpa. It’s his birthday!! 77 today (I didn’t tell you that ;))
Ginger cake is so versatile, you can really do anything with it. Muffins, cakes, loaves. Any leftover (ha) can make the base for a trifle or dry it out in the oven and make spicy bread pudding. Let your imagination go wild 🙂
With its complex flavour, it makes such a great cake to ice. It’s not sickly sweet but subtly spicy with three different types of ginger and cinnamon.
You don’t even need to buttercream this cake, either leave it like I’ve suggested for the loaf or drizzle with an icing made from 100g icing sugar and the juice of 1/2-1 lemon. You can’t make this cake bad. Really hope you enjoy it, and fingers crossed my grandpa loves it.
Wish me luck xxx

Ginger cake

150g butter
200g golden syrup
50g stem ginger syrup
150g black treacle or molasses
Dark muscovado sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
3 tsp finely grated fresh ginger
2 balls finely grated stem ginger
250ml whole milk
2 large eggs
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
300g spelt flour or plain flour
For the buttercream:
300g cream cheese, softened
100g butter, softened
1 jar good quality lemon curd
2 balls stem ginger + 2 tbsp of the syrup, grated
3 tbsp icing sugar
3 tbsp maple syrup
1 kilo regal icing

Preheat your oven to 170’C and line a loaf pan and a rectangular baking pan with butter and grease proof paper.
To make the cake put the butter, syrups, treacle, sugar, stem and fresh ginger and cinnamon into a large saucepan and melt over a low heat. Whisk the eggs into the milk and into a separate bowl sift flour and bicarbonate of soda. Let the melted mixture cool down for a few mins before mixing in the eggs and milk. Then add the flour mix and stir to combine, you may need a whisk to dissipate any flour lumps, but you won’t manage them all! Don’t be scared that the mixture is very liquid, you haven’t gone wrong, that’s just how it’s meant to be 🙂
Pour this into the prepared tins and bake for about 30-40 mins. The loaf may take slightly longer as it’s thicker.
Once cooked immediately pour over the remaining stem ginger syrup and then leave to cool completely.
To make the buttercream whisk the room temperature cream cheese until smooth (do this first before adding anything else or you will get tiny lumps that will never come out no matter how much you whisk!)
Add the butter and icing sugar and mix well to combine, then mix in 4 tbsp of lemon curd, the maple syrup and the ginger with the syrup. Whisk well until smooth.
Once the rectangular cake has cooled completely at least an hour, spread over a thin layer of lemon curd. Follow this by a generous layer of buttercream. Set the cake aside whilst you get on with the icing. Knead the icing until it’s smooth and pliable. Roll out to about 1/2-1/4 inch thick, it really depends on how sweet you want the finally result. Carefully cover the cake with the icing smoothing down the side and top. Now to get creative. I’ve made this cake for my grandpas birthday so it’s got to be a book!! Such a nerd lol!! But you can go with whatever you want.
You may be wondering what to do with the loaf cake. Once cooled cut into slices and serve with butter as a teatime treat. Yum!
If you don’t want to make the rectangle shape you could do 2 loaf tins or make muffins out of the batter. Do anything you want, or whatever you have! A great substitute for a Classic Christmas cake, for those who don’t want the hassle or like the traditional 🙂

Sweet Vanilla Custard Muffins

So good, an easy, simple recipe. Minimal effort, maximum enjoyment.
Put on the kettle and get ready for a nice big muffin cuddle!!

Vanilla Custard Muffins

3oz spelt flour or the same of plain flour
3oz custard powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
6oz softened salted butter
5oz vanilla caster sugar (if you don’t have this just add a touch more vanilla paste)
3 large eggs
4 tbsp milk or double cream
2 tsp vanilla bean paste
100g white chocolate chips
For the icing:
2 tbsp custard powder
3 tbsp icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
about 4-5 tbap cream ( depending on the thickness you want)

Preheat the oven to 180’C and line a 12 hole muffin tray with cases.
Place all the ingredients minus the chocolate chips into a large bowl or an electric mixer, and mix together until just combined. This is why you need really soft butter otherwise you will get small lumps in the mix!
In a small bowl mix the chocolate chips with 1 tbsp of flour and then fold through the muffin mix. (This step is really worth doing as it means that chips will be suspended in the batter rather than sinking to the bottom :))
Fill the case 2/3rds full and i like to refridgerate the mix for about 1/2 an hour before baking as it seems to make them rise evenly and just cook better, but you don’t have to do this.
Bake for 12-15 mins turing halfway. Take out of the tray and leave to cool on a wire rack for 30 mins before icing.
To make the icing mix the custard powder with the icing sugar and whisk in the cream a tbsp at a time until you have the thickness you want. add the vanilla and its ready.
Drizzle this over the muffins and away you go! Make sure you hide them, they might disappear otherwise 🙂

Sparkly Ginger Cookies

Loving these ‘sparkling’ginger cookies. Crunchy outer, gooey, spicy middles…YUM!!
I made these lovlies to compliment the whisky, white chocolate ice cream and to make it into a dessert, they went down pretty well.
You may be suprised at how much spice i’ve put into the dough, but you really need something other than ginger to make a rounder flavour. With hardly any fat either they are practically health food! 🙂
Perfect for anyone with a dairy problem- no butter!
I’ll stop trying to talk them up, as it’s not really needed, and give yo the recipe.

Ginger Cookies

2 1/4 cup plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp ground clove
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
1/4 cup rapeseed oil, or any vegetable oil
1/3 cup molasses
1 cup dark brown muscuvado sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 cup chopped crystalised ginger, mixed with 1 tbsp flour
About 1/4 cup granulated sugar (for the sparkle :))

Preheat the oven to 180’C and line 2 baking trays.
In a large bowl whisk together the oil, molasses and brown muscuvado sugar for about 5 mins. I used an electric mixer.
Add the egg and whic=sk for another min. Make sure you scrape down the sides, as theres always a bit at the bottom that never gets mixed in.
Mix in all the dry ingredients, i don’t bother sifting if im using the mixer as any lumps will dissipate, and mix to combine. Lastly add the ginger mixed with flour (this will keep the ginger pieces elevated in the mix evenly)
Roll into 16 even sized balls and roll in the granulated sugar. Place onto the baking tray about an 1inch apart and press down to flatten the cookies slightly.
Bake for 13 mins until crackly and firm to the touch, but still soft in the centre.
Put the kettle on and enjoy with a cuppa 🙂 xx

Luscious Lemon Drops

At Nans house now (she loved the soup and scones :)) and wanted to make something quick. So routed through her cupboards looking for something nice, and came back with a jar of lovely lemon curd. Got my thinking cap on and came up with these beauties!
Had good feedback from the best critics, my nan and the dogs – she is a softie and always saves them a bit 🙂 Hope they go down well with you guys to, let me know what you think.

Lemon Drops

10oz spelt flour (or the same of plain flour)
5oz sugar
8oz butter, diced and slightly softened
About 1/2 jar of good quality lemon curd
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 170’C ans line or lightly grease a large baking tray.
In a large bowl (or food processor) place the flour, sugar, butter, salt, lemon zest and 2 tbsp of lemon curd. Rub together until a dough forms, don’t be tempted to add any liquid it will come together. If your using a processor just pulse until a dough forms (it’ll take no time.)
Roll into 15 equal balls and place onto the tray equally spaced out.
Press to flatten very lightly.
Then wet your thumb slightly and press a dimple into the top of each ball and fill this with about 1/2 a tsp of lemon curd each. Bake for 12-15 mins turning halfway. These biscuits are quite delicate so let the, cool on the tray for 5 mins before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely. Enjoy with a cuppa 🙂

Custard and White Chocolate Biscuits

I love to make cookies, traybakes or any other sweet treat for my friends and family- hopefully they like them too 🙂 The first time i made these particular ones was for the golden jubilee last year and one of my neighbours loved them so much he actually requested a batch a few days later, so i know they are a winner 🙂

So tonight i’m staying at my nans house and thought what to make this time??
Although my gramps proclaims not to have a sweet tooth, he doesn’t seem to mind munching his way through what i make 🙂 … but anyway this is what came to mind.

A really tasty, can’t stop eating the, cookie. A slightly different texture than a normal chocolate chipper because of the cornflour in the custard powder, but just as delicious!! Give it ago a see what you think.

Custard and white chocolate biscuits
140g soft salted butter
175g granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
225g spelt flour or the same amount of self raising flour (just skip the baking powder if you use that)
2 tsp baking powder
85g custard powder
100g white chocolate chunks

Preheat oven to 170’c and line a 2 baking trays with greaseproof paper.
Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and egg and continue to mix until combined.
Then sift in the flour, baking powder (if using) and the custard powder. The mix will start to get quite firm then and crumbly (see the picture above)
If you start to find it to hard to mix with a spoon use your hands to bring it together into a dough. Then add the white chocolate chunks.
Roll into golf ball sized balls and place onto a tray about 2 inches apart. Flatten slightly with your hand and bake for 12mins turning halfway. the will look pale but resist putting back into the oven as the will continue cooking on the tray. after a few mins transfer to a wire rack to cool completly, if you can!!
Enjoy. xxx

Blondies

A real family favorite, and a winner everytime! I make this often, it’s my brothers traybake of choice and you can see why!!
Gorgeously gooey on the inside (like a brownie) but crisp and crunchy on the outside (like a cookie) you really can’t go wrong.
Great for a quick teatime treat or tarted up with berries and clotted cream (maybe even a cheecky chocolate sauce) makes an amazing dessert.

Remember to take the blondie out before you think its ready- you really want a nice amount of goo in the middle 🙂

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Blondie
2 1/4 cups plain flour
250g softened salted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup muscuvado sugar (light or dark- dark gives a deeper, richer flavour. Better for adults!)
1 tsp (level) baking powder
1 tsp flaky sea salt or 1/2 tsp of table salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
white, dark and milk chocolate chunks – as many as physically possible!!

Preheat your oven to 170’c. Prepare a 8 by 8 inch square tin (or any that the mix will fit in!) To prepare your tin butter and line with greaseproof paper.
Cream the butter with both sugars until light and fluffy. Add in the vanilla and 1 egg, beat again to incorporate. Then add the other egg (if the mixture looks like its seperating a bit DON’T PANIC, just add a bit of flour and it will come back to being a lovely mix.)
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt in 2 stages into the mix and fold in- at this point you don’t want to overmix it as it will build up the gluten in the flour making the end result tough.
Put 1 tblsp of flour into the chocolate chunks and stir to coat each piece then add this to the mix and fold through again- don’t skip this step, coating the chocolate in flour suspends them in the mix and prevents them from sinking to the bottom during baking 🙂
Now its time to bake, your only 30 mins away from heaven!!
Bake in the middle shelf turning about 15mins into cooking. You will want to check the blondie after 25 mins, what your looking for is a crust to have formed ontop but underneath wants to be quite squiggy!! Leave to cool in the tray before cutting into squares, circles, triangles, whatever your heart desires!

Tips:
You can make these by hand or in a food mixer, but if you do it by hand make sure the butter is very soft. Ideally left out overnight.

I like to use bars of chocolate and cut them myself so i can cut them into sizable chucks, but you can use the bags of chunks or chips. Or try adding any of your favorite chocolate sweets- fudge, caramel, rolos, smarties, maltesers, anything goes!!!

HOpe you enjoy this
xxxx