Sticky Ginger Cake Recipes

Steps:

• Heat oven to 400°F. Lightly spray 8-inch square pan with cooking spray.
• In 1-quart saucepan, stir together 1/4 cup honey, 1/4 cup molasses, the brown sugar, butter and gingerroot. Cook and stir over medium heat until sugar is melted. Remove from heat; cool 5 minutes.
• Meanwhile, in medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda, ground ginger, cinnamon, allspice and salt. In small bowl, beat buttermilk and eggs. Add egg mixture to honey mixture; stir with whisk. Pour over flour mixture; stir until well combined. Pour batter into pan.
• Bake 25 minutes. Poke cake every inch with skewer. In small bowl, mix 1 tablespoon honey, 1 tablespoon molasses and the water; brush over hot cake. Cool completely in pan on cooling rack. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to fan 160C/conventional 180C/gas 4. Butter and line an 18cm round, 7cm deep cake tin with greaseproof or parchment paper.
• Put the flour, bicarbonate of soda and all the spices into a large mixing bowl. Add the butter and rub it into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
• Put the sugar, treacle, syrup and milk in a medium saucepan and heat, gently stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Turn up the heat and bring the mixture to just below boiling point.
• Add the stem ginger to the flour mixture, then pour in the treacle mixture, stirring as you go with a wooden spoon. Break in the egg and beat until all the mixture is combined and it resembles a thick pancake batter. Pour this into prepared tin and bake for 50 minutes-1 hour, until a skewer pushed into the centre of the cake comes out fairly clean. Leave to cool completely in tin before turning cake out. (To freeze: wrap in greaseproof paper, then in cling film. Freeze for up to 1 month.)
• To make the icing, mix together icing sugar and lemon zest, then gradually add lemon juice until you have a smooth, slightly runny icing, adding more juice, if needed. Drizzle icing in a zig-zag pattern over surface of cake, turn cake around and drizzle again to create the cross-hatched finish (see below). Cake keeps for up to 2 weeks stored in an airtight container.

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 325. Lightly grease a 9 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan and line the bottom with a piece of parchment paper that has been cut to hang over two opposite edges by a couple of inches. This overhang will make removing the cake from the pan clean and simple.
• Combine the butter, water, molasses, honey and brown sugar in a medium non-reactive saucepan and place over low heat. Stir the mixture frequently until the butter is melted, and all of the ingredients are well blended. Remove from the heat, pour into a large bowl and set aside to cool.
• Meanwhile, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, allspice and cloves, and set aside. When the molasses mixture feels just warm to the touch, add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the milk and stir to combine. Fold the dry ingredients into the batter in four additions, using big, long strokes. Don't be concerned if you can't get all the lumps out--settle for most of them! Stir in the grated ginger.
• Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake in the center of the oven for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours, or until the top of the cake springs back when touched and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool for 15 minutes, then, using the overhang of parchment, lift the cake out of the pan and cool completely on a wire rack before cutting. Well-wrapped in plastic, this gingerbread actually improves with age. If stored at room temperature, it will have a sponge-cakey texture and will keep for about 4 days. Refrigerated, it becomes stickier, denser, and wonderfully chewy and will last at least a week. Allow the cake to return to room temperature before serving. This cake is fabulous warm, and the only adornment it needs is mounds of softly whipped cream.

Steps:

• Put the chopped dates in a pan with the milk, butter, ginger preserve and dark muscovado. Heat gently until the butter has melted and the mixture starts to bubble round the edges of the pan. Stir well and set aside for 1 hr to cool.
• Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Line the base of a buttered 23cm springform tin with baking parchment. Peel and chop the pears into large chunks. Mix the flour, chopped pecans and bicarb with the spices, then stir into the cooled date mixture with the eggs. Pour into the tin and scatter over the pears. Roughly break the reserved pecans and drop on top. Bake for 40 mins, then cover the top loosely with foil and return to the oven for 25-30 mins more until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out with just sticky crumbs - the cake may still look a little wet around the pears.
• While the cake is baking, make the brandy syrup. Tip the light muscovado sugar into a pan with 50ml water and dissolve over a low heat until syrupy. Stir in the brandy and set aside. When the cake is ready, spoon over half the syrup, then leave the cake to cool before serving with extra syrup on the side.
• To freeze, cool the cake in its tin, then wrap well and freeze for up to 3 months. Defrost and warm through in a low oven. The syrup can be frozen separately, warmed, then drizzled over as before.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Butter a 23cm-round ring tin. Combine the flour, muscovado sugar and butter in a bowl, then rub in with your fingers until crumbly and completely blended. Stir in the grated orange zest and ground ginger.
• Scatter half the nuts and half the chopped stem ginger into the bottom of the ring tin. Break up the rest of the nuts into small pieces and stir into the crumb mix with the rest of the stem ginger. Measure out 100g/4oz of the crumb mix and spoon it into the tin over the nuts. Stir the bicarbonate of soda into the rest of the crumb mixture. Mix the soured cream and egg together, then stir it into the remaining crumb mixture. The mixture will be very soft. Pour this batter over the crumbs (it will come quite high in the tin).
• Bake for 35-40 mins or until risen and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Let the cake sit for 10 mins, then take it out of the tin and leave to cool on a wire rack.
• Cool the cake completely, then wrap it in foil and freeze for up to 2 months.
• When ready to use, thaw for about 2 hrs at room temperature. Serve in slim slices with dollops of Cointreau cream, orange segments and a drizzle of syrup from the jar of stem ginger.