If you want a light and airy cake with a delicate flavour, I’m sorry, this is not the cake for you. This one is dense in texture, almost like a fudgy brownie, and it has a lovely strong flavour.

The one shown here is a gluten free version that I made for a church event where several people are gluten-intolerant. If you don’t want it GF, just use normal (regular) self-raising flour and omit the xanthan gum powder.

Makes: 10 – 12 slices

Time: 20 min. prep. 45 – 55 min. baking + cooling time

Level: Easy

Need: A 20cm/8” round tin, ideally loose bottomed.

Ingredients

150g/5½oz butter
115g/4oz golden caster sugar (or use white)
175g/6oz honey
2 – 3 Tbsp ginger syrup
200g/7oz Self Raising flour (gluten free option)
1 tsp xanthan gum powder (for GF version)
1 tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp salt
2 medium eggs, beaten
125g/5oz stem ginger, cut into small pieces + dusted in (GF) flour
About 25ml/1fl oz milk (optional – use if the mixture seems too thick.)

To decorate/filling

100g/4oz* butter
75g/3oz* full fat cream cheese
About 200g/7oz* icing sugar + some for dusting later
A little honey and/or ginger syrup (but avoid thinning the mixture)

*I’ve tried to be as accurate as I can for the ingredients, but I did “throw it all together ” in a hurry, adapting one of my earlier recipes. The event was early on Saturday afternoon and I’d only arrived back from Uganda the day before, too tired to bake, so it was a Saturday morning rush job. In fact I had to cool the baked cake in the freezer to give me time to cut and fill it. (not recommended)

Method

1. Grease and line a the tin. Turn the oven on to reach 180°C / fan 160°C / 350°F / Gas 4.

2. Place the butter, sugar, honey and ginger syrup in a saucepan and heat until melted and mixed well. Don’t let it boil. Remove from heat and set aside.

3. Sift the flour & xanthan gum powder into a bowl and mix in the ground ginger and salt. Make a well in the centre and pour in the cooled honey mixture, then the beaten eggs. Beat until smooth. Stir in the cut stem ginger. Take care to avoid it clumping together into one big lump. Stir in some milk if the mixture is very thick and heavy.

4. Pour into the prepared tin, smooth the surface, and bake for 45 – 55 minutes. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack.

5. For the filling beat together soft butter and cream cheese then sift in icing sugar. Stir at first then beat more vigorously. Stir in a little ginger syrup and/or honey to make a firm but spreadable mixture. (If it’s a bit runny, place in fridge for 30 minutes or longer.)

6. To fill the cake, cut horizontally into halves and spoon or pipe the mixture onto one half before stacking them. To top the cake, either dust with icing sugar or make a second butter cream mixture. (NB I inverted the baked cake before cutting it, to give me a nice flat top surface.)

I hope you enjoy this lovely cake. If you want more cake recipes click this link, or have a look at my site for lots of other great recipes, both sweet and savoury.

Below are some of my cakes that I’d love you to try:

Rhubarb, Almond and White Chocolate Cake