I have baked ginger cake before but in a tray bake so enough to feed a crowd. Today, I have decided to share a smaller version mainly because I do not have a lot of people to bake for.

To bring out the ginger in the cake please make sure you buy the best ground ginger you can afford. Some cheaper versions of ground ginger do not bring out the strong ginger flavour which I feel is important in a ginger cake. I like this recipe because it is moist and if you use the stem ginger you get the intense ginger flavour in almost every bite.

Do not worry if you cannot get the stem ginger because the wonderful ginger flavour can still be achieved without it.

Ingredients

• 100 grams light/dark muscovado sugar
• 75 grams butter
• 175 grams black treacle
• 150 ml milk
• 1 large egg
• 225 grams self raising flour
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 pieces of stem ginger, finely chopped or crystallised ginger (optional)

To decorate

• 125 grams icing sugar
• lemon juice or juice from the stem ginger bottle
• and some of the stem ginger to decorate or sieve a bit of ground ginger on top

Method

• Pre heat the oven to 175 Celsius
• Put the sugar, butter and treacle in a pot over medium heat and stir until melted
• Remove from the heat and whisk in the milk, then the egg and finally the chopped stem ginger (if using)
• Add the rest of the ingredients into a bowl and then pour in the treacle mixture and mix until smooth
• Pour it into the prepared cake tin and bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes.  Test with a cake tester inserted in the middle of the cake, if it comes out clean it is ready.
• Leave it in the cake tin for about five minutes before turning it and leaving it on a cooling rack to cool completely
• I leave it wrapped in foil for a day or two before icing  to give the ginger flavour time to ‘mature’
• Mix some icing sugar with the juice from the stem ginger until a spreadable consistency and spread on top of the cake and then sieve on a bit of ginger powder or decorate with finely chopped stem ginger pieces.

Serve!

To make 12 Ginger Muffins

Bake for 20 minutes, Test with a cake tester to check if they are ready.

You can buy gingerbread sprinkles here : http://amzn.to/2ite1pv