Ginger Cake

4.85 (487)
⏱ 60 mins 🍽 Serves 12 🌶 british ✅ Easy 🏷 Snack

This British teatime cake is a moist and sticky bake, flavoured with warming stem ginger and spices. A zesty lemon icing is drizzled over the cooled sponge, creating a perfect balance of flavours. It's an ideal treat for afternoon tea, a buffet, or a simple snack. The recipe yields 12 servings and takes about 60 minutes from start to finish.

Ginger Cake

Ingredients

  • 225g self-raising flour
  • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 1 tbsp ground ginger
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ground mixed spice
  • 115g butter cut into cubes, plus extra for greasing
  • 115g dark muscovado sugar
  • 115g black treacle
  • 115g golden syrup
  • 250ml whole milk
  • 85g drained stem ginger finely grated
  • 1 egg
  • 50g icing sugar, sifted
  • 1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice

Method

  1. Set your oven to fan 160C/conventional 180C/gas 4. Prepare an 18cm round, 7cm deep cake tin by greasing it with butter and lining it with parchment paper.
  2. In a large bowl, combine the self-raising flour, bicarbonate of soda, ground ginger, cinnamon, and mixed spice. Add the cubed butter and rub it into the dry ingredients using your fingertips until the texture is like fine breadcrumbs.
  3. Place the dark muscovado sugar, black treacle, golden syrup, and whole milk into a medium saucepan. Warm the mixture while stirring gently until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat to bring the liquid almost to a boil.
  4. Stir the finely grated stem ginger into the flour mixture. Pour in the warm treacle liquid, mixing with a wooden spoon. Crack in the egg and beat everything together to form a thick batter resembling pancake mix. Transfer the batter to the prepared tin. Bake for 50 minutes-1 hour, testing with a skewer inserted into the centre until it comes out fairly clean. Allow the cake to cool fully in the tin before removing it. (For freezing, wrap in greaseproof paper and cling film. It can be frozen for up to 1 month.)
  5. For the lemon icing, combine the sifted icing sugar with the grated lemon zest. Slowly add the lemon juice, stirring until you achieve a smooth, slightly runny consistency, adding more juice if necessary. Drizzle the icing in a zig-zag pattern across the cake's surface. Turn the cake and drizzle again to create a cross-hatched pattern. Store the finished cake in an airtight container where it will keep for up to 2 weeks.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories285 kcal
Fat10 g
Saturates6 g
Carbs50 g
Sugars31 g
Fibre1 g
Protein3 g
Sodium324 mg

Recipe details

Skill levelEasy
CategorySnack
Cuisinebritish
DietNut-free, Vegetarian