The Great British Sticky Ginger Loaf

Our household is a huge fan of Jamaican Ginger Cake, but it hasn't ended up in the weekly shopping for a while now. For months I have had a Ginger cake/loaf recipe just waiting to be baked, but I never quite got around to it. 

My eldest younger brother (!) George is a keen baker and is always very proud of his results from his food tech classes at school. I set him the challenge of baking this loaf on the condition that if it's good, he can take it home but only after he has baked me another one! 

The recipe has been adapted from "The Great British Book of Baking", designed to accompany the first BBC series of The Great British Bake Off, Penguin Books, 2010.

Recipe:

225g self raising flour

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tbsp ground ginger

1tsp cinnamon

1tsp mixed spice

115g unsalted butter, chilled and diced

115g black treacle

115g golden syrup

115g dark brown muscovado sugar

275ml milk (not skimmed)

1 medium egg, beaten

Method:

Heat oven to 180C (160C fan assisted) 

Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger, cinnamon, and mixed spice into a large bowl. Rub the butter into the flour mix, lightly using the tips of your fingers, until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs. The higher you lift the mix, the more air will get in, meaning a softer cake.

Spoon the treacle and golden syrup into a small pan and melt on a low heat until melted and runny, but not hot. Set aside until lukewarm.

Put the sugar and milk In another pan and heat gently; keep stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Leave to cool until lukewarm and then whisk the milk into the flour mix. Quickly add the treacle mixture and the egg and whisk until you have a smooth thick batter, similar to double cream.

Put the mixture into your prepared loaf tin. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes.

Set the tin on a wire rack to cool completely. Only remove the gingerbread from the tin when completely cool. 

The original recipe suggests you wrap the ginger loaf in foil and leave at least a day before cutting as the cake gets stickier the longer it is kept in an air tight container.

We tried this step..but after a couple hours we gave in and cut it!

The Result: the softest, lightest, tastiest ginger cake you have ever eaten. And that was unanimous!!