I’ve been pretty indecisive about what to bake this week. There are a few recipes which have caught my eye, but each time I think yes, I’ll do that one, I then start questioning my decision and change my mind. But the lure of a sticky ginger and caramel cake was strong, and so, I settled on this one.
This recipe is from Olive Magazine’s December 2017 issue. It is one of those cakes which is “bare” on the sides, but with icing running off the top in decorative “drips”.
With rum, caramel, dark treacle, stem ginger, dates and spices on this list of ingredients, it is a lovely cake for this time of year when the weather is turning colder.
This was, purely by chance a gluten-free recipe, using gluten-free flour, but otherwise all the usual store-cupboard ingredients. It was easy enough to bake, melting together the sugars with the rum, caramel, dates and ginger and blitzing until it was smooth, before adding the butter and eggs.
Once well mixed (oh, and don’t forget to breath in deeply – that gorgeous rum, ginger and treacle…..) add to the spices and flour. The recipe called for 2 tablespoons of ground ginger, but (and I love, love, love ginger) even that seemed excessive, so I halved the quantity.
Mix well and pour into two cake tins and bake.
The icing is a caramel buttercream, which goes so well with the treacly ginger of the cake. Once iced, some Caramac bars are melted with ginger syrup and poured over the top of the cake (this is where it all went wrong for me….). My Caramac and ginger syrup seized. I added more, and then again more, ginger syrup to loosen the mixture. I then decided to work with that, or give up. I spooned the Caramac mixture on the top of the cake, but there wasn’t enough – or it was just not quite liquid enough to dribble down the sides of the cake. I conceded defeat.
The proof, however is in the tasting. The cake is lovely, light yet rich and very gingery and the caramel buttercream compliments it perfectly. In my opinion though, the Caramac doesn’t enhance it at all, though I suspect that’s just a matter of personal taste.
It’s not neat or pretty, I would never be a plasterer!! I found it quite difficult putting the barest amount of icing on the sides of the cake.
Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, I wish you all a peaceful weekend 🙂
RockCakes&Ramblings 