Ginger Cake with Lemon Drizzle Icing

Autumn days make me hunger for more stodgy and filling food, and I suspect I'm not alone in this!   Light cakes lose their appeal in the winter, but a good ginger cake helps to keep out the chill, and the ginger pieces are perfect to combat the autumn colds and flu!   Think of it as medicinal, and you can't go far wrong...  This cake keeps brilliantly well, and has a lovely dense texture, with chunks of whole ginger to delight the tastebuds.

Ginger Cake with Lemon Drizzle Icing

Ginger Cake with Lemon Drizzle Icing 

8oz self raising flour

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp mixed spice

4oz soft brown sugar

4oz butter

4oz black treacle

4oz golden syrup

2 eggs

¼ pint milk

5 pieces of stem ginger cut into small pieces

Icing - 1/2 lemon, icing sugar (approx 3oz)

Grease and line an 8" spring clip or lose based sandwich tin.  Preheat the oven to 180 deg C.     Put sugar, butter, syrup and treacle in a pan and heat gently until melted.  Beat the eggs into the milk.  Sieve the flour and spices into a large bowl.  Add treacle mixture, ginger pieces and milk and beat well.  Pour into the prepared tin.  Cook for about 20-25 minutes on 180 deg C until brown and springy to the touch, beginning to shrink away from the sides of the foil. 

When the cake is cold, make up the icing by warming the juice of half a lemon in the microwave, then beating in the icing sugar until you have icing that pours reasonably well, but isn't so thin it rushes off the cake.   Use a piping bag or a spoon to drizzle the icing over the cake.  

There are many more exciting new recipes (at least 30 exclusive to the book) in my new book "Kate's Puddings, the Cookbook of the Blog" - simply click on:  http://www.parkersprint.com/kates%20puddings.html