This is truly the best ginger cake recipe I have found yet.  It originally came from The Reggae Reggae Cook Book by Levi Roots – one of my favourite recipe books but I have adapted it slightly!

Jamaican Ginger Cake
I make mine in a ring tin but you can use a loaf tin aswell.

Ingredients

100g/31/2oz butter, cut into cubes
100g/31/2oz muscovado sugar
3 tbsp golden syrup
150ml/5fl oz milk
1 large egg
150g/5oz plain flour
1 tbsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2″ piece of ginger – peeled, grated and the juice squeezed from the gratings.

Method

Preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F/Gas Mark 2. Grease a 20cm/8in ring tin or a 900g/2lb loaf tin with butter

Put the butter, sugar and golden syrup into a pan and heat gently, stirring, until melted.

Add the ginger juice to the milk and then add to the pan, pour into a jug and leave to cool for a couple of minutes, then add the egg.

Sift the flour, ginger, cinnamon and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl. Pour in the wet ingredients and gently mix together.

Pour the cake mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 45 minutes (or up to 1 hour for loaf tin) or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Turn onto a wire rack and leave to cool.

We enjoy ours with or without custard, its great as a pudding or with a cup of tea!  Enjoy.

I made two very nice cakes today….

If you like to cook and enjoy Caribbean food then Levi Roots Reggae Reggae Cook Book is a must to buy.  Its like a little food bible in our house.  The Jerk sauce is amazing and the ginger cake puts those oblong McVities cakes to shame!  Today I tried the coconut cake and Levi has not failed me yet again, its delicious.

Coconut Cake ala Levi Roots

Ingredients

175g self-raising flour

1tsp baking powder

175 g butter, cut into cubes

175 g golden cater sugar

3 eggs, lightly beaten

50 g sweetened tenderised coconut or desiccated coconut

Finely grated zest and juice of 2 limes

Method

Preheat the oven to 180oC and line a loaf tin with the non-stick baking parchment.

Put the flour, baking powder, butter, sugar, eggs, coconut and lime zest and juice into a large bowl and mix together with an electric whisk. Start off slowly, and then gradually increase the speed. If you haven’t got a mixer, put all the ingredients into a large bowl and mix with a wooden spoon until light and fluffy.

Pour the mixture into a prepared tin and bake for 45-55 minutes or until skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 1o minutes, then turn onto a wire rack to cool completely.

The second cake I made was a Carrot Cake because I love them.

Carrot Cake with cream frosting

Ingredients

1 cup castor sugar

1 cup plain flour

1 and ½ cups grated carrots

2 eggs

½ cup oil – rapeseed/veg/sunflower/olive

½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon powder

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C/GM4.

Grease and line a loaf tin.

Place all ingredients into a bowl and mix well – I used my Kenwood.

Pour mixture into cake tin.

Bake for approximately 45/1hr minutes until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Remove the cake from oven and allow to cool.

Turn cake onto a wire rack and allow to cool completely before icing.

Carrot Cake Frosting

Mix 30g of spread/soft butter with the same quantity if cream cheese, you may add some lemon or orange juice with  about a tbsp of icing sugar.

Spread over cake.

MALT LOAF – makes one 2lb loaf or two 1lb loaves

8oz/225g sultanas
8oz/225g raisins
3oz/85g butter
half pint/290ml water
12oz/340g self-raising flour
half teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
pinch of salt
8oz/225g soft dark brown sugar (the darker the better)
2 large eggs, beaten
3 tbsp malt extract

1. Preheat oven to 180c/350f/GM 4. Grease and flour 1 x 2lb loaf tin or 2 x 1lb loaf tins.

2. Put the dried fruit, butter and water into a large pan and bring to the boil then simmer for 5 minutes. Allow to cool a little.

3. In a mixing bowl, sift the flour, bicarb of soda and salt together then stir in the sugar.

4. Pour in the fruit mixture then add the beaten eggs and malt extract. Mix well with a spoon.

5. Pour into the prepared tin/s and bake in the centre of the oven for 30 minutes, then move to a lower shelf and bake for a further 30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tin for five minutes.

Well I’ve been a very busy girl over the past couple of days.  With a picnic in the park looming, I decided to make some cupcakes I mean, you have to have cakes at a picnic, it’s the law, surely!  As I am loving the chocolate mayonnaise cake at the moment, I went for that in muffin cases.  As expected, they were divine and I whipped up a chocolate butter icing to go on top.

Chocolate Butter Icing

140g/5oz Butter, softened

250g/10oz Icing Sugar

1 heaped tbsp Cocoa Powder

1-2 tbsp Milk

Beat the butter until soft then add half the icing sugar and cocoa and beat until smooth.
Add the remaining icing sugar with one tablespoon of the milk and beat until creamy.

I spooned my butter icing on top of the cupcakes but you could use an icing tool.

I love to make cakes an if I am completely honest, I love to eat them too!  I had heard that the chocolate cake made with mayo was one of the nicest chocolate cakes you could eat and having stumbled across a recipe online I just had to have a go.  It was absolutely amazing, moist, chocolaty, light and rich – everything a girl could want in a chocolate cake.

Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake

2 cups SR Flour
2/3 (two-thirds) cup Cocoa Powder
1 & 1/3 (one-third) tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
¼ tsp Baking Powder
1 & 2/3 (two-thirds) cup Caster Sugar
3 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
1 cup Mayonnaise
1 1/3 (one-third) cups water

1. Grease and line two 9 inch round cake pans & preheat the oven to 350f/ 180c or Gas Mark 4
2. In a bowl stir together flour, cocoa, bicarb and powder, set aside
3. In large bowl using mixer at high speed beat sugar, eggs and vanilla for 3 minutes or until light and fluffy, occasionally scraping bowl
4. Reduce speed to low and beat in mayonnaise
5. Add the dry ingredients in 4 additions alternately with water, beginning and ending with flour
6. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean
7. Allow to cool in tins for 10 mins, remove and cool on wire rack

You can eat this cake without a frosting, although I just used chocolate spread and sprinkles.

For a boy who doesn’t eat cake usually he seemed to enjoy this one – hence the lack of mess!