Sticky and Fiery Crystallised Ginger Cake

Hope your all keeping well.

Other than the garden, I have not stepped outside of the house since we were advised to stay (and work from) home to protect ourselves and the NHS and save lives.  As I am not having to commute to and from work, I am finding that I have more time on my hands (and energy) in the evening, so am trying to find some distractions to remain upbeat, one of which is doing some baking with whatever ingredients we have in the house. Here's a Crystallised Ginger Cake I made last week, but more about that in a moment.

I  was also was thankful the good weather as it permitted me to go and finish off the weeding and digging.  As many of you will know, the past few weekends and months in fact have been dreary, wet and damp, so I was  little pleased that I was able to spend most of my Saturday and Sunday in the garden tidying it up for the next lot of planting .  

Here are some pictures of the garden. I know I should have done a before and after, but I wanted to get stuck in and get my hands dirty. 

I have cleared the whole plot of weeds, clumps of grass, removed last year climbing bean frames and wigwams.  What you can see above is the plum tree starting to bud.  Below it is our strawberry patch and in the corner you can just about see the rhubarb coming into its own.   

Every gardener knows gardening is a never ending job, but I was pleased with my achievement as I looked back - no weeds.   

The Rainbow Chard is still growing strong and is giving the garden colour.  I have harvested Ruby chard leafy stems for a Cheese Quiche filling, but have decided to leave the rest in the ground until I come to cook with them in the upcoming days (and possibly weeks) that way they will remain fresher, then the ground will be dug over and free for the next lot of incoming plants. 

I also dug out some potatoes (not shown), and still wondering if they are okay to eat?!

The above picture shows our pear tree. The invasive mint, Artichoke and raspberry patch which is in need of some weeding.   I am sharing this blog post with Dave over at Happy Acres who hosts Harvest Monday every week.

Now back to the Crystallised Ginger Cake.  Ginger as we know has many health benefits, one of which is its good for colds and flus, so it can only be good for us especially at this time. 

This cake has double the dose of ginger: ground ginger and crystallised ginger (and could have taken a triple dose with freshly grated), but I thought I'd hold back this time round.  It was spicy with a little bit of fiery and proper sticky topping - reminisce of old fashioned Jamaica Ginger Cake.  I don't know if it was doing us any good medicinally, but it was hitting the happy spot.  D liked it so much that he said I can make it again.  By the way if you do bake this, the crystallised ginger may fall to the bottom, but you can flip the cake over.
Other Ginger Recipes
Beetroot and Ginger bread Muffins
Gingerbread Pancakes
Fresh Ginger and Carrot Muffins (vegan)
Vegan Chocolate Ginger Cake (vegan)
Orange Gingerbread Slices
Rhubarb and Ginger Loaves
Rhubarb and Gingerbread Loaf

Some Festive Eats over Christmas

I hope my readers had a good Christmas break.  I had a good one and I must confess I am pleased as I am still on my holidays, I don't go back until after the New Year.  

So with some time on my hands, I thought I would share some homemade festive eats.

A very simple and easy recipe for pinwheels made to look like a Christmas tree.  These are green wraps filled with hummus, strips of yellow, orange and red peppers, rocket and spring onions.  

Vegan sausage roll bites in two flavours: apricot and yellow pepper; the other was beetroot and horseradish served with Smoked Paprika Ketchup.

Black chickpea and sweet potato frittata bites.

As well as the homemade chocolate 'salami', I made another festive bookmarked recipe from the Green Gourmet Giraffe, this time for Gingerbread Cookies.  This was also actually an excuse to play with my box of eclectic cookie cutters.   

Pear, Apple and Ginger Crumble

My husband picked up two bags of pears a couple of weeks back, I have to say I don't like it when he does this, as he never eats the fruit fresh and it sits there, for days, no for weeks going dark and very soft.  I often think its a ploy on his part.  He knows I won't let the fruit go to waste or even the compost bin, and secretly wishes them to somehow magically be transformed into cake or some other sweet thing, and often his little fairy grants his wish.  I wish my little fairy would make me cake!

Anyway, I did originally have intentions on making this Savoury Pear, Blue Cheese and Walnut Tart, and still may do as I still have half a dozen brown freckled pears left over, but at the weekend I ended up making a belly warming Pear, Apple and Ginger Crumble.  

Its been a long while since I've made a pear crumble, the last time was in my first year of blogging and it was with hazelnuts.  This was different in that it had no nutty crunch, but it had warmth and a little fire from the fresh ginger.  I served this golden pear, apple and ginger crumble simply with some home-made custard, but cream or ice-cream would have been nice too.  

Vegan Gingerbread Men Cake

If you like ginger, then you will like these Gingerbread Men Cakes.

Some of you may remember early in the year I made some vegan gingerbread cake. They did look quite plain, so I promised you that I would use my gingerbread cake men moulds, well here they are. These are the same moulds I used for my Halloween Beetroot Pies.  Unlike it's biscuit brother, these are softer to eat, and the ginger comes through quite strong. 

Oaty Ginger and Plum Crumble

My father gave me some plums that have fallen off the tree in the garden both due to ripeness and weight.  The nippers (nephews and nieces) were not that keen on them, so they were looking for someone to offload them on to.  I gladly obliged.  I had ideas of making my Almond, Plum and Thyme Tart.  But as the days went by, sunny on some and dark and grey on others, my thoughts turned to a homely plum crumble: one that I've made before, infused with fiery ginger.  I like ginger, there is something warming and healing about it.  This particular crumble is also made with rolled oats, I like the additional chewy texture it offers.   

Vegan Chocolate Gingerbread Cake

I am off to the theatre later this evening to watch Facade: that promises to be an intimate and theatrical three course meal, during which, drama unfolds.  I believe the theatrical part, but not sure about the intimate part - especially as there will be a fair size audience.  Nevertheless, I am genuinely  looking forward to it and hope to share more about it later on in the week.  I am also looking foward to putting on my glad rags and some rouge for the cheeks and lips.  Its been a while, since I've spruced up andmoreso eaten out. 

Anyway, onto some cakey delights - today I share with you some vegan chocolate gingerbread cakes.    

Part of me wished  I had one of those silicone gingerbread people moulds (a bit like the heart shaped moulds I used for my Valentines strawberry jelly) and then this would have been so darn cute to serve. Maybe next time, unless of course you beat me to them.

Regardless of how they look, one person who had the cake said it was so delicious, he couldn't help scraping the last of the cake remnants from the baking parchment paper. 

I am sharing this with Choclette and Chele  for their monthly We Should Cocoa Challenge. The theme for February is ginger and it is hosted by Jen of Blue Kitchen Bakes.

Chocolate Gingerbread
Makes 6 - 8 or 1x  8 inch round baking tin
Ingredients
30g cocoa powder
180g plain flour
½ teaspoon bicarbonate soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2½ teaspoon ground ginger
165g brown sugar
200ml strong brewed coffee, cooled
100ml vegetable oil
60g crystallized ginger, chopped
2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
Method
Heat the oven to Gas Mark 5. Oil an 8 inch round baking tin or 6 - 8 round/oval cake tins lined with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, sift the flour, cocoa, soda, salt, cinnamon and ginger. Stir in the sugar. In a small bowl, combine the coffee with the oil and whisk. Then beat the liquid into the dry ingredients. Stir in the crystallized ginger, and then quickly stir in the vinegar.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 30 – 35 minutes, or until a toothpick in the centre of the cake comes out clean.  These are better served the following day.

Fresh Ginger and Carrot Muffins

I know I should be making some darling gingerbread people or star and Christmas tree-shaped gingerbread biscuits this time of year. The truth is making sweet biscuits aka cookies from scratch has never been my strong point.  They always seem to lack bite and crunch.  It is something I hope to remedy next year when I move closer to family with children and will have plenty of time to experiment on willing human guinea pigs. 

Anyway, all this is way of saying that I ended up making some Carrot Muffins with a fresh grating of ginger.  You may think the fresh ginger would be overpowering, but actually its not.  It just gives a fresh clean taste. I should also point out that these are not very sweet.  These have just enough sweetness for what I think is a good breakfast cake!

The only thing about them that made me raise my eyebrows, was its rather odd shape.  Maybe I was a bit heavy-handed with the sifting of the flour, but upon baking they bloomed pointy upwards - looking more like acorns than chubby muffins.   Still they were nice to eat with a mug of coffee.   

Fresh Ginger and Carrot Muffins
Ingredients
Makes 9
260g plain flour
100g golden caster sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
2   medium carrots, grated
200ml milk
2 eggs
60ml vegetable or olive oil
2 - 2½ tablespoons ginger, freshly grated
Method
Preheat oven to gas mark 6.
Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl, then stir in the carrots and the wet ingredients.   Stir gently until combined.  Spoon into muffin cases and bake for 15 - 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Adapted from The Garden of Vegan by Tanya Barnard and Sarah Kramer. 

Beetroot and Gingerbread Muffins

If you like gingerbread cake, then you are going to like these beetroot and gingerbread muffins. 

I made these muffins a little while ago - in between travelling to and fro Essex and Wales from Scotland.  So I can't rant on about them as much as I would like, but I do remember them being extremely sweet and sticky and such a delight to eat.  Each bite was soft with a burst of spicy warmth from the stem ginger pieces.

A bit like Brussels sprouts, I have an aversion to beetroot.  But I must admit since starting my blog, my opinion of beetroot has changed a lot (can't say the same for sprouts!).  I am not saying that I love beetroot, no no - but I don't dislike it either.  However when beetroot is cooked like this, grated and lost in a sweet crumby cakey textures, how can you not try?!

I saw the recipe for these beetroot and ginger muffins on the Love Beetroot website.  Its aim is to share the beautiful side of this earthy crimson vegetable.  Its history, some beetroot facts, its health benefits as well as encouraging us, namely us Brits to eat more beetroot by sharing a growing collection of beetroot recipes.  Some of these recipes were familiar to me, such as: beetroot dips, beetroot salads, beetroot pancakes, and of course the recently fashionable beetroot - chocolate cake.  But alongside the familiar were a number of  new recipes such as the beetroot bread, American style beetroot pie, beetroot, raising and stem ginger pudding - and the one that tempted me was the sticky ginger and beetroot muffins.  

The original recipe uses cooked beetroot, I decided to use 'raw beetroot' which gave the muffins a slightly pleasant chewy texture.  The original muffin recipe does have a ice glazing, but I decided to give this a miss as the muffins were extremely sweet.  I am sharing some of these muffins with Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes who is hosting Bookmarked Recipes, a monthly blog event initiated by Ruth of Ruth's Kitchen Experiments, as well as to Karen's at Lavender and Lovage and Kate of What Kate Baked for the launch of their "Tea Time Treats" and a challenge of "Bonfire Treats and Ginger".  This is also linked to  Mom Trends who is hosting Friday Food.

Beetroot and Ginger Muffins
Makes 12
Ingredients
200g golden syrup
200g black treacle
150g unsalted butter
125g dark brown sugar
100g stem ginger, diced
4 teaspoon ground ginger
250g raw or cooked beetroot, grated
250ml milk
2 medium eggs, beaten
1teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
300g plain flour
Method
Preheat the oven to gas mark 4, line a 12 hole muffin tray with cases.
In a saucepan , add the golden syrup, black treacle, butter, dark brown sugar, stem ginger and both ground ginger. Warm gently until butter and sugar have melted.
Whisk the eggs with the milk, then stir in the grated beetroot and bicarbonate of soda.
Once the butter and sugar have melted, take the saucepan off the heat and add the milk, eggs and beetroot.
Sieve the flour into a large mixing bowl and beat in the wet ingredients until they are smooth.  the  batter will be quite runny, so don't be alarmed (I was).
Fill the muffin cases with the batter - this is easier if you use a jug - and bake in the preheated oven until firm but springy to the touch. Be careful not to overcook the muffins. Remove from the tin and allow to cool on a rack.  These muffins keep really well for a few days in an airtight tin. Original recipe can be found here. 

Orange Gingerbread Slices

I know the past few days I've been straying away from fresh seasonal produce; making the most of what we have in our kitchen cupboards (lentils, pasta) or already in the fridge (tofu, okra).

Truth is we have hardly ventured outside the past few days.  Part of the reason is our finances, the other is the heavy downpour.  I mean even the Scots are moaning about the weather, and it takes a lot for the Scots to moan.  A couple of days ago, even the Scottish weather person stated it as being the worst Summer in Scotland.   I say what Summer?!  There was one good week of sunshine, but it was just a teaser.  I think parts of England would benefit with some this rain, as it would keep the opportunist rioters off the streets.  Its really disgraceful and sadly its getting uglier.  Forgive me for digressing, but its hard not to get angry, with people having been made homeless by the mindless malicious actions of others; as well as at the loss of innocent, young lives.  It is truly heartbreaking.  I have a lot to say about whats going on right now, but this is not the place for it .  Also I know it wouldn't make an ounce of difference to the people who have been directly affected by this ugly unfolding reality in our society.

Anyway, I may not be sitting under the Spanish sunshine, but this sliced orange injects a little colour in my home.  Also if you were to step into my home, you would be seduced by gorgeous smells. 

I can only describe these being a bit like ginger nuts, but superior. This is a skinny ginger cake with a light crunch on the outside and squishy, chewy soft inside. By the way the orange is very subtle; and there is also a hint of saltiness that is really lovely. I would find it extremely hard sharing these, but I must share some of that golden sunshine albeit in a small cake.

I am linking this recipe to This Chick Cooks Party#10; Bake with Bizzy; and Simple Lives Thursday#56 hosted by Gnowfglins and friends.  Please do go by and visit these blogs.

Orange Gingerbread Traybake
8 – 10 slices
Ingredients
225g plain flour
1 ½ teaspoon ground ginger
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
½ teaspoons alt
75g butter
225g demerara brown sugar
2 tablespoon black treacle
4 tablespoons milk
1 egg
Zest from 1 small orange
2 tablespoons orange juice
Method
Grease and line the base of a 11 x 7 inch shallow cake tin. In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour, ginger, baking powder, soda and salt. In a medium pan, add the butter, sugar and treacle and heat until melted and allow to cool. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and milk, orange zest and orange juice, then combine all the ingredients together, beat well and pour into the prepared tin. Bake int he oven at gas mark 3 for 30minutes, until just firm to the touch. Cool in the tin, then cut into squares.

Chocolate Gingerbread Cake

Is it spring here yet!? It still feels so wintry.

As well as a hot drink like mulled wine or hot cider, a piece of cake spruced up with a little of ginger would not go amiss either.

On the first day of eating this Chocolate Gingerbread cake, the texture was airy light, almost mousse like. However, a day or two later, the texture firmed up a little, still very tasty. The ginger in the cake certainly kicks you in the mouth on first bite and guess what?! This cake is vegan too.

Chocolate Gingerbread
1/3 cup or 30g cocoa powder
1 1/3 cup or180g plain flour
½ teaspoon bicarbonate soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 ½ teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup or 165g brown sugar
1 cup or 200ml strong brewed coffee, cooled
½ cup or 100ml vegetable oil
¼ cup or 55g chopped crystallized ginger
2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
Method
Heat the oven to Gas Mark 5. Oil an 8 inch round baking tin.
In a large bowl, sift the flour, cocoa, soda, salt, cinnamon and ginger. Stir in the sugar. In a small bowl, combine the coffee with the oil and whisk. Then beat the liquid into the dry ingredients. Stir in the crystallized ginger, and then quickly stir in the vinegar.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 30 – 35 minutes, or until a toothpick in the centre of the cake comes out clean. From Moosewood Restaurant Celebrates.

Ginger Black-Eyed Peas

No I am not referring to a missing member of the American Hip Hop group 'Black Eyed Peas', but to this lovely bowl of black-eyed peas. Black-eyed peas are also called black-eyed bean, cow peas and chawalie and lobia.

Whilst googling for alternative names for the Black-Eyed peas, I also read that eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day is thought to bring prosperity and luck - so this is genuinely a happy coincidence. I learned that this 'good luck' tradition of eating black-eyed peas can be traced to the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashana. Other food named as good-luck symbols that should adorn your table on New Years day are bottle gourds, spinach and leeks. Well guess what, there is leek in this soup too. Let us see what 2011 brings.

Because of my bias for the mighty chick pea, I always forget how much I like the humble black-eyed bean, and then I am reminded of its buttery texture melting in my mouth. When cooked well, the black-eyed peas can become the most delicious legume ever, in my opinion anyway.

Regular readers will know that I like my food spicy, so I would have happily made some Lobia dal salan (curry), but I wanted something subtle today. Flavours like ginger and lemon that gently enliven your tongue when feeling a little under the weather. Hope you all had a good night.
Ginger Black-Eyed Peas
Serves a Crowd
Ingredients

1 ½ cups dried black-eyed peas
1 large onion, peeled and diced
1 large leek, washed and sliced
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 ½ tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
2 teaspoon dried oregano
Salt and pepper to taste
Zest of ½ lemon
Juice of ½ lemon
Method
Soak the beans overnight. The following day, cook them in fresh water for about 45 minutes to an hour or until they are tender. Do not add salt until the peas are completely softened.
When done, drain the cooked bean, reserving the liquid.
Heat olive oil and sauté the onion, leeks and garlic. After a few minutes add oregano, ginger and salt and pepper to taste. Cook for about 5 minutes before adding in the cooked beans. Stir well to combine. Then pour in desired amount of bean liquid. Allow to bubble for a few minutes before stirring in the lemon zest and juice. Serve warm. Adapted from The Tassajara Recipe Book by Edward Espe Brown

Ginger Plum crumble

I just loved the colour of these plums. They reminded me of the kind of deep purple I was happy and more daring to wear on my lips in my younger years. Pretending to look all sultry and moody. I don't wear the colour on my lips these days, but I do on my fingernails and sometimes in the clothing I wear.

However these plums were not for admiring. I'd eaten some au naturale at work for lunch, but there were still many more, going soft at the touch. Not for long though....
Upon cooking the minced ginger infused the plums and the plums themselves became soft, sharp and syrupy releasing all its juices. The oaty crumbly topping was as delightful and chewy.

Ginger Plum Crumble

Serves 6

Ingredients

600g -700g plums, stones removed and sliced

2 pieces of stem ginger, minced

50g caster sugar

For the crumble topping

150g plain four

100g chilled, diced butter

75g, caster sugar

50g rolled oats

Method

Preheat the oven to gas mark 6. Place the plums in a 2 pint ovenproof dish and scatter over the ginger and sugar.

Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles unevenly sized breadcrumbs. Stir through the sugar and oats and scatter over the plums, do not be tempted to press it down. Bake for 30 - 35 minutes until the plums are soft and the crumble is golden brown. Serve warm with cream or custard. Adapted from Ainsley Harriott's Gourmet Express 2.

Me and gingerbread

I've used some of the rhubarb I picked yesterday from the farmers market for this moist rhubarb and gingerbread loaf.

Doesn't the soft pink of the rhubarb look wonderful against the dark caramel texture...mmm...
but don't be deceived by its tempting looks. Its not all perfect.

Look. The loaf is all sunk in the middle. Its not the recipe, it was me. I opened the oven a little too soon and the loaf sunk yes before my very eyes. Oh dear. You know what, as I am typing this it occurs to me that this happened to me when I made gingerbread cupcakes. They sank too. Perhaps me and the perfect gingerbread are just not meant to be or it could just be a coincidence. Anyhow, sometimes I do wish I had one of those ovens with a see through door then I can watch my cakes rise and fall. Despite the way this gingerbread looks, it tastes fine, even the top which looked like a chocolate brownie was crunchy contrasting well with the soft rhubarb.

Moist rhubarb and gingerbread loaf

Ingredients

220g self raising flour

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

4 teaspoons of ground ginger

110g butter

110g muscovado sugar

60ml treacle

2 tablespoons milk

2 eggs

300g chopped rhubarb

Method

Mix together the flour, soda and ginger powder. Add the chopped rhubarb to this and stir.

Melt the butter in a saucepan with the sugar and treacle. Cool before adding in the milk and eggs. Add this to the flour mixture. Mix well. Turn the mixture into a large loaf tin. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour at gas mark 4. Adapted from Gaia's Kitchen: Vegetarian recipes for family and community by Julia Ponsonby and friends at Schumacher College.

Molten brown gingerbread pancakes

The taste of the gingerbread cupcakes is still lingering, both in my head and on my tongue. So you can imagine my excitement when I came across a gingerbread pancake recipe in one of my cookbooks. So to pick up on this gingery journey, I made some Gingerbread pancakes for breakfast.

It takes a bit of practice to make these. I had trouble flipping them over in the frying pan. Then I realised I wasn't cooking the one side enough. It needed to bubble and firm up a little before flipping over. Also I had to ensure the heat was right, too hot and the pancakes would char, too low and they looked undercooked. But after making the first few, I finally got a hang of this skill.
These pancakes are more molten brown from the molasses and the dark spices. I especially liked the surprise hit of the freshly ground cloves. These pancakes were served with whipped cream, maple syrup and glace preserved ginger pieces for extra bite.

If you have any pancakes left over, just warm them in the oven and serve with vanilla ice-cream which is exactly what I'll be doing in a little while.

As this is an American recipe, the measurements come in cups rather than grams. If you think the quantity below is too much, you can always divide the quantity of the ingredients. My next ginger flavoured recipe is waffles!
Gingerbread Pancakes
Serves 4 - 6
Ingredients
2 cups of flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon dried ginger
¼ ground cloves
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2 cups buttermilk
¼ cup molasses
2 tablespoons brown sugar
¼ cup sunflower oil
Method
Combine flour, baking powder, spices and salt. In a separate bowl, beat eggs and whisk in the remaining ingredients. Combine the wet and dry mixing well.
Oil a medium frying pan and ladle about ¼ cup of batter onto the hot surface for each pancake. Let the first side cook for 3 – 4 minutes. Turn once and cook on the second side briefly to finish. From The Tassajara Recipe book.

Memories of Jamaican Gingerbread cake

I will often adapt and put my own spin on recipes, but when it comes to baking. I often stick to the recipe. A few weeks ago when I was in the West End, I noted that a Waitrose had opened up there. Well as a food tourist I went in to have a good nosy around. I remember being well impressed with their selection of mushrooms. On leaving, I picked their edition of the March Food Magazine.
Yesterday evening, after saying I was not going to do any cooking or baking as I was tired from all the gardening, I actually ended up doing some. One of the things I made were these gingerbread cupcakes. Aesthetically I was quite disappointed with them when they came out the oven, as each had a dent in the centre. The batter was really wet, so wet that I had to use a ladle to spoon the mixture into the muffin cups. I assumed I had misread the instructions. So I made the recipe again this evening. I followed the instructions carefully, this time word for word. The mixture was still very wet and yet again I had to ladle the mixture into the baking tin. I baked them for 16 minutes as the recipe which can be found here stated. Then I opened the oven and before my very eyes, they collapsed. I think these cupcakes need more baking time as the 16 minutes stated in the magazine is not suffice. I think it more closer to 30 minutes.

Despite being sunken, they were very sticky, spicy, moist and sweet. Let me tell you what these reminded me of, have you ever had those Jamaican Gingerbread cake? My mother used to buy them all the time when we were small. I would always insist on having the icky sticky moreish ends. Well these sunken gingerbread cupcakes tasted just like that, albeit with more texture and bite from the pieces of ginger. I will have a go at making this recipe one more time, as the result was really delicious, but I think instead of making individual Gingerbread cupcakes, I would experiment and make a Gingerbread loaf like the ones from my childhood.

Do you know what a good solution is for cakes gone wrong? Whipped cream of course. Whipped cream is always a great disguise.