Evil Ginger Cake

I’m a bit busy editing at the moment, so I thought I’d post a recipe instead.

To say that this is probably unlike any cake you’ve ever tasted before is as much of a warning as it is a boast.  More spicy than sweet, it’s a quintessentially adult dessert. Children are likely to hate it. But they don’t need it. They have their youth.  And then there’s small issue of the puddle of alcohol it sits in.

Ingredients

½ Cup of unsalted butter at room temperature
½ Cup brown sugar
½ cup of black strap molasses (unsulphured)
Zest of 1 large or 2 small limes
2″ piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
¼ cup of toasted chopped almonds
2 eggs at room temperature

2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
2 cups of all purpose flour

1 cup of milk

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 F or 180 C. Grease or spray a 9″ cake tin or 2 loaf tins and line with baking paper.

Using a mixer or a whisk, cream the butter and brown sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating as you go.  Then add molasses, lime zest, grated ginger and chopped almonds until all is well incorporated.

In a separate bowl, combine all spices, baking soda, salt and flour and whisk to ensure even distribution.

Begin to add the dry mixture into the wet one in stages: a third of the flour mixture, then a third of the milk, then flour, then milk… alternating until all the ingredients are blended. However, do not over-mix as this will make the cake heavier and stodgy.

Pour the batter into pans and bake for about 40 minutes or until a inserted toothpick comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool on a rack for 1 hour before you attempt to cut it.

Serving

Serve in a bowl, in a puddle of good dark rum, and top with either crème anglaise, whipped cream or ice cream. I know that proper cooks would say you should heat up the rum to burn off the alcohol, but I like the rough hit of it encountered raw.

You could serve this as a cutting cake, for tea. But I would suggest you glaze it with a simple lemon drizzle icing if you’re going to serve it that way. If you’d like the recipe for that, let me know and I’ll post it.