Sticky Stem Ginger Cake

As sad as it is to admit, I was a fan of the TV show, New Zealand's Hottest Home Baker. It was reality TV at it's worst but I found it great for getting new ideas and inspiration for baking.

On the very first show each contestent made their signature dish and I have tried several of the recipes since then. The other day I tried the winning recipe, Emma's Sticky Stem Ginger Cake, which originally came from Taste magazine in September 2006.

It was delicious! I could not track down stem ginger in any stores or supermarkets so I used fresh ginger instead. I served it at a family dinner with the lemon drizzle and whipped cream and despite being certain Dad would hate it, he loved it! Tasted like pa pudding he said.

Here is mine going into the oven. Mmmmm.

Here is the recipe for anyone keen to try it:

Cake Ingredients:

225g Self Raising Flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 Tbsp Ground Ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp mixed spice

115g butter

115g dark muscavado sugar

115g treacle

115g golden syrup

250ml blue milk

85g drained stem ginger in syrup (grated finely)

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees, grease and line cake tin. Sift flour, baking soda and spices in food processor. Add butter and pulse to breadcrumbs. Transfer to large mixing bowl. Put sugar, treacle, syrup and milk into saucepan and heat gently, stirring until sugar dissolves. Turn up heat and bring mixture to just below boiling. Add stem ginger to flour mixture and add treacle mix while stirring. Break in egg and beat until combined. Pour into tin and bake for 50-60mins. Check centre with skewer and leave to cool.

Icing Ingredients and Method:

50g icing sugar (sifted)

1 tsp lemon zest

1 Tbsp lemon juice

Mix icing sugar and zest and gradually add juice until you have a smooth and runny icing. Drizzle or pipe into a criss-cross pattern.