Ginger marmalade cake

If you’re anywhere near Christchurch, you will have seen plenty of gorgeous photos of snow floating around, or even the real deal! Snow to me means that I’ll have alll day to bake and make something ridiculously rich for dinner, followed by something ridiculously rich for dessert.* Then eating the leftovers the next day. Dessert on actual snow day was a slightly altered version of Tartine’s “steamed” gingerbread, but the recipe was still a tad too molasses-y (oddly, it tasted quite chocolatey), and the tiny amount of powdered ginger I used barely registered. On the other hand, the texture was amaaazing, so if you like seriously molasses-y cakes, go for it.

All you really need to know about this cake though (taste wise) is that it’s very smooth, moist, and rich – it’s not super gingery or spicy or marmaladey, but a bit of a symphony. Although it’s soft, it’s not very fluffy – it’s a cake you can cut neatly once cold, and it’s slightly dense and fudgy but still moist. It’s almost stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth moist, but not soggy. I still prefer the texture of Tartine’s sticky molasses ginger cake,

Making this cake is almost as easy as whipping up a Betty Crocker cake, except you can take all the credit. It’s a one bowl cake that’s small enough to serve just 4-6, so it’d be awesome for an impressive looking dessert with minimal effort – and that’s even after you’ve made the butterscotch sauce to go with it. If you want a lot of it, you can double the recipe and make it in an 8×8″ pan, or 9″ springform tin. Best of all, if you do make a lot of it, it tastes just as good the next day. Alternatively you can make it earlier in the day for an after-dinner dessert, and if you want it warm, it warms up well in the microwave.

If you don’t have ginger marmalade, you can use whatever marmalade you want and up the amount of ground ginger, or mix and match spices to work with whatever flavour you have. Also, if you’re like me and don’t actually really like marmalade, this cake tones down the bitterness and also adds some fruitiness without any of the peeling/cutting you’d normally need to do. Delicious and lazy.

makes one small 9×4″ loaf to serve 4-6 

• 120g hot water (just boiled if you’re in a very cold kitchen)
• 200g ginger marmalade or whatever marmalade you have
• 60g butter, melted
• 25g neutral cooking oil
• pinch salt (omit if using unsalted butter)
• 105g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp ginger (this is for a mild ginger flavour, I’d go double if I wanted a serious ginger hit or was using regular marmalade)
• optional: pinch ground cloves, pinch ground black pepper
• optional: 1 T cocoa, for colour and extra richness
• 1 large egg

Preheat oven to 160C (325F) with a rack centred. Generously grease your loaf tin, then dust with flour. I brush some of the melted butter onto the tin to keep my hands clean, just use an extra 2g or so of butter.

Mix first five ingredients until uniform. Sift over the rest of the ingredients (except egg), stir until fully incorporated. Beat in egg until just combined. Pour into loaf tin, bake 40+ minutes until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Butterscotch sauce

• 25g butter
• 25g brown sugar
• 35ml (ish) whipping cream

Melt together in a very small saucepan on low heat to dissolve the sugar, then turn up the heat to medium and let bubble up and darken in colour slightly. Remove from heat and pour over cake. To reheat, pop back on the heat (you don’t want to serve this sauce cold with this cake). Or pop some cold on a piece of cake and microwave on medium high heat until it melts.

Other serving suggestions: Topped with caramel apple sauce. Served alongside poached rhubarb, or vanilla ice cream, or yogurt, or lightly sweetened whipped cream. Drizzled with double cream, or a very dark chocolate ganache. I wouldn’t suggest a frosting/icing with this cake given its texture – you’d probably have trouble swallowing!

*Roasted vegetable quiche (using steamed butternut squash, silverbeet and dotted with cream cheese) and crispy roast potatoes one night, and vegetarian shepherds pie the next with smoky roasted yams and cauliflower. Oh man, I feel full just thinking about it.

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