Thursday 13 May 2010

Sticky ginger and apple cake

I mentioned in my last post that I had meant to bake my mum something for Mother's Day. Well she came and stayed for a couple of nights earlier this week to help look after Sylvia while E is away and I have been working. So I had the opportunity to make her the Sticky Apple and Ginger Cake that I had seen on Cake, Crumbs and Cooking recently.

Interestingly enough my only other experience of cooking with crystallised stem ginger is the Chocolate and Ginger Flapjacks I made based on on another recipe from C of Cake, Crumbs and Cooking. She must be my sticky ginger guru!

C raved about this cake based on a recipe from Waitrose. The Waitrose recipe was actually a simnel cake with marzipan baked on top. I wouldn't mind trying it this way some time or even lumps of marzipan in the cake (like Nigella's marzipan fruit cake). However, marzipan is not something I usually have the in house, unlike the other ingredients so I was happy to follow C's lead and bake the cake without it.

I liked the cake but would have liked a bit more fruity taste. It was a shame that the apple was overpowered by the ginger. But it was a lovely moist buttery cake and quite sweet even with my reduction in sugar because I ran out of brown sugar. I also reduced the ginger because, like C, I only had a 125g bag of the crystallised stuff.

I would not rave about the cake quite as much as C but I suspect my mum would. She loved it with a cup of tea after arriving home from a night out with my dad. I knew it would be just her thing as she loves ginger and apples. We share a lot of loves in food but not everything. After all my mum ordered tripe the other day when dining out! Hmmm, my violent dislike of the idea of tripe (never having eaten it) makes me think that maybe my enjoyment of this cake is closer to my mum's than I might think.

Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
This time last year: Peach Smoothie
This time two years ago: Rosy Russian Bread (and Grumpy Baker)
This time three years ago: Nila – Delectable Dosai and Peculiar Pumpkin

Sticky ginger and apple cake
Adapted from Cake, Crumbs and Cooking
  • 125g crystallised stem ginger, cut into pea-sized pieces
  • 170g butter
  • 2 tbsp buttermilk
  • 200g light brown muscovado sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 15g fresh root ginger, grated
  • 195g self-raising flour
  • 1 cooking apple, peeled, cored and grated (I used a pink lady)
Preheat the oven to 170C or gas mark 3. Grease and line 20cm round cake tin (I used a loaf tin).

Melt the butter in a large saucepan (or in the microwave using a microwave-proof mixing bowl as I did) and stir in the sugar. Cool slightly, then beat in 2 eggs and the root ginger. Stir in the flour, then the apple and crystallised ginger.

Scrape the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for about 1 hour or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out cleanly (well mine was clean but the recipe says it might have a few moist crumbs clinging to it). If it is getting too brown, cover with some foil but a bit of golden brown colour tastes good as it is so sweet and buttery.

On the Stereo:
Night on my Side: Gemma Hayes

13 comments:

  1. There is nothing like a bit of crystallised ginger in a cake to make it utterly delicious.

    I love Waitrose, their magazine is excellent - although I think that all the recipes are on their website.

    They now have both Heston and Delia producing recipes for them and additionally are the most ethical of the UK supermarkets by a long way. Can you tell I am a Waitrose fan?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I found myself eating tripe by accident one day in France ... it was actually excellent. I was really hungry and that was what was put on the table. But I've never sought it out again either.

    The cake looks excellent!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Tripe! My dad cooked that once when I was much, much younger, and I think my brother and I were much... displeased, to put it mildly.

    I'm ashamed to admit that this is perhaps the first recipe of yours that I can't even envision myself making, as crystallised ginger is a flavour I cannot bear. The odd thing is I love ground ginger in sweet things, so there's clearly some sort of glitch in my brain. It *looks* yumsters though!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks Helen - I don't know much about waitrose so am interested to hear your views - unfortunately we can't get the magazine here in Melbourne but I should check out the website a bit more

    Thanks Tanna - seeking out trip would take the craziness up to a whole new level - but good to hear my mother is not alone in her - err - interesting tastes

    thanks Hannah - I am all empathy - it is only recently I have come round to the idea of crystallised ginger - mostly with chocolate in the flapjacks and in panforte - seems to show that for me it is more lovable when paired with chocolate - now have you tasted a chocolate with crystallised ginger in it?

    ReplyDelete
  5. I have many fond memories of Waitrose :) I suspect this cake would be wonderful with a cup of coffee or tea!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Lucky mum, to have this cake made for her! Even if it wasn't quite fruity enough for your taste, it's got to be a whole lot better than tripe...! (you need to have a word with your mum about that)

    ReplyDelete
  7. It looks lovely and moist, I can just imagine biting into it with a mmmmmmmmmmmm. My apple cake, is the one my dad always wants me to make, maybe I should try this one on him and just use a little less ginger.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I'm so pleased that you made it Johanna, and really thrilled that your mum liked it so much!!! It is a very sticky, buttery rich cake though, so I'm sure it wouldn't be to everyone's tastes. It's lovely when someone else makes something you've blogged about isn't it!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Johanna: I have indeed, and I could barely swallow it. I used to be the same about ginger in all forms, though, so I hold out hope that one day I'll come around to the crystallised kind...

    ReplyDelete
  10. Yummy..I love 'sticky' cakes and this reminds of a sticky toffee pudding because sticky toffee puddings are like sticky cakes lol It looks delicious and so moist!

    BTW, congrats on your awards!

    ReplyDelete
  11. This cake looks delightful - and who doesn't love apple and ginger?

    ReplyDelete
  12. What a beautiful cake! I love the giant chunks of apple (or ginger?) in there. I think the fact that it's called "sticky" ginger and apple cake makes it more appealing to me too haha. I'm a sucker for marketing and names.

    ReplyDelete
  13. As someone who used to love, love, love crystallized ginger (ate it like candy), I'm sure I'd rave about this cake, too. Looks delicious!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for dropping by. I love hearing from you. Please share your thoughts and questions. Annoyingly the spammers are bombarding me so I have turned on the pesky captcha code (refresh to find an easy one if you don't like the first one)