Ginger and Butterscotch

I've always thought of ginger cake as a very winterey sort of cake. Warm out of the oven, accompanied by a hot chocolate and a good book, mmmmmm. But, recently I had a request for a combination of ginger and butterscotch, and I thought; why not? So here we are. A blending of ingredients I wouldn't usually put together, but culminating in a deliciously rich, warm cake.

This recipe only makes about 8, seeing as I made half a batch this time. My sister isn't keen on ginger so the rest I made vanilla, the recipe for which can be seen on an earlier post.

Ingredients:

• 100g unsalted butter
• 90g dark soft brown sugar
• 1.5 tablespoons black treacle
• 75ml milk
• 2 pieces of stem ginger
  
• 1 egg
• 150g self raising flour
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• pinch of salt

Firstly you need to preheat the oven to 160C(fan)/180C/Gas Mark 4 and line a muffin tray with cake cases.

Put the butter, sugar and treacle in a saucepan.

Melt over a low heat, stirring until smooth.

Allow it to cool briefly and then stir in the milk.

Beat the egg. Chop the ginger into small chunks and add to the egg.


Beat the egg/ginger mix into the butter mixture. Sift the flour, ground ginger and salt into the mixture and combine thoroughly.

Carefully spoon the mixture into the cake cases and bake in the oven for about 30 minutes. They should look a lovely, rich amber-brown colour. To check they're cooked properly, insert a skewer or a fork into the middle of one of the cakes. If it comes out clean, it's cooked. I always think ginger cake smells fantastic when it comes out of the oven. Mmmmmmmm...


Now, once you've refrained from eating them all and they've cooled nicely on a wire rack, it's time to make the icing. Usually with ginger cake I would make a ginger fudge icing, but I'm using a butterscotch one this time.

You'll need:

• 60g unsalted butter
• 30ml milk
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 300g icing sugar
• 1 tablespoon butterscotch flavour (if you cant find a good flavouring, you can use something like angel delight, works just as well.)
  

Put the butter, milk, vanilla and half the icing sugar into a bowl and whisk until blended. Gradually add the remainder of the icing sugar and butterscotch, whisking well until smoooooooth.
Swirl onto the cakes. This amount makes enough for quite a lot onto each cake so dont be afraid of piling it on.


These would be exquisite just left as they are, but I had these nifty little chocolatey things I decided to sprinkle over them instead. Purely of course, because the colours just went fabulously. Yes they did.

So there you have it. Ginger and butterscotch. Happy baking!!

Caramelicious. Mm-hmm.

I was going to call this post "Why thank you, tinkle fairy"; after an Adam West quote my sister has been using all the time lately, but decided against it, seeing as people might be more interested in the flavour cakes I'm detailing with this post.

You might have guessed they're caramel related. Yes, caramel cupcakes, flavoured and made ooey gooey delicious with a caramel sauce, topped with caramel buttercream icing and crushed diam. Mmmmm, lovely. Those that have tried these cakes have told me they're their favourites, and they're always devoured quickly. They are considerably more challenging to make, but if you get it right they're well worth the effort.

Before you make the cake mix, you need to make a caramel sauce to go in the mix. This needs to cool before it goes into the batter, so make it beforehand to give it plenty of time. For this, you'll need:

• 190g caster sugar
• 60g light soft brown sugar
• 120ml water

Put the sugars and 5 tablespoons of the water into a saucepan, and stir over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Increase the heat, and cook over a high heat for about 10 minutes, after which the mixture should be a dark amber colour.



Remove the pan from the heat and leave it to cool slightly. Stir gently to help it cool, but be careful seeing as the sugar is still extremely hot. Once the mixture has cooled a little, add the remaining water into the mixture gradually, and continue stirring. Hold the pan away from you while doing this, as the mixture may spatter upon adding the water. Cover and leave to cool until ready for use. While you're waiting for it to cool, start on ze cakes. :D

Ingredients:

• 110g unsalted butter
• 120g light soft brown sugar
• 120g dark soft brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 125g self raising flour
• 120g plain flour
• 75ml caramel sauce
• 50ml double cream

As usual, firstly preheat the oven to 160C(fan)/180C/gas mark 4.

In a large bowl, weigh out the butter, and add both sugars.



Cream until pale, smooth and fluffy. With an electric hand mixer, this should take a few minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla exract too.


Combine the flours in a seperae bowl. Add one third of the flours to the creamed mixture an beat until the mixture just about comes together.


Add the caramel sauce now, beating well. Add another third of flour and beat again until it just comes together. Next, add the double cream, beat, and add the remaining flour.


Carefully spoon the mixture into twelve cases, and put in the oven to bake for 25 minutes.


Bye bye, cakes!

During the time they're in the oven, I usually pass the bowl and beaters to my Chief Taster. My sister has been filling this post lately, but this time I tried a little of the mixture myself... And my gosh, it's the tastiest, scrummiest, most delicious cake mix I have ever eaten. My sister never got the bowl.

Greedy? Who, me?!

I found my cakes took just a little bit longer, maybe about two or three minutes more than the recommended time. They came out of he oven all golden brown and lovely looking.


Slightly volcanoed, but the perfect amount for these babies. Leave the cool for a couple of minutes before taking them out of the tray and putting them on a wire rack to cool properly.

Time to ice!

• 60g unsalted butter
• 6 tablespoons milk
• 220g light soft brown sugar
• 280g icing sugar, sifted
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Place the butter, milk and brown sugar in a heavy saucepan over a high heat and stir to combine.

Bring to the boil, stirring continuously. Allow to boil for one minute.

Remove from the heat and stir in half of the icing sugar. Make sure it's sifted otherwise it will go into little globs as you're mixing it, it doesn't make the biggest difference ever but you really have to beat it to get them out.



Leave the mixture to cool slightly, then add the remainder of the icing sugar and the vanilla. Keep stirring it to thicken to the desired consistency.


This icing is best used immediately. Swirl it onto the cakes with the flat side of a butter knife, then stand back and admire your precision in all it's caramel beauty.


Go on. Soak up that caramelley goodness. Mmmmmm.

Next, crush a couple of Diam bars (easiest way is to put them in a plastic food bag, then go nuts with a rolling pin. CHARLIE SMAAASH.)

Sprinkle these smooshed bits onto the icing when it's still wet to get it to stick, so best done one at a time to make sure the icing is still fresh enough, as it sets very quickly.


Then you're finished! Well done, now reward yourself with some tasty cake. You earned it.