Ginger Zinger cake - gluten free and super easy

This is an amazing cake and I challenge you to even tell its gluten free, its light, moist and delicious and very very moreish. Based on a recipe from Honeybuns bakery book (Ginger hippo cake) but with a few creative twists this is a very popular cake in our household and was very well received when I published a few photographs on instagram. I named it Ginger zinger as it contains ginger in four different forms, yet the ginger still doesn't overpower the cake. The filling and topping is very different from what is suggested in the original recipe and I think adds a flavour twist to the cake.

The recipe features sorghum flour which is a tall grass grain which produces a soft white flour and is naturally gluten free, this is combined with ground almonds to create a moist cake with volume. I am also one for not wasting flavours or ingredients soI  decided to use the sticky ginger syrup the stem ginger is preserved in, to enrich the lemon buttercream.I am really pleased with the result and it stores beautifully in the fridge just covered with film wrap, serve in generous slices with a cake fork or spoon.

What you need

• 175g butter - melted 
• Oil spray and tapioca flour for the baking tins
• 100g of drained stem ginger - chopped fine in the food processor
• 4 eggs - free range medium size
• 175g light soft brown sugar
• 125g ground almonds
• 100g sorghum flour
• 2 heaped tsp ground ginger 
• 1 tsp baking powder

Buttercream filling

• 200g soft butter or half and half butter spread and butter
• 400g icing sugar
• Lemon juice (or lemon extract or fiori di sicilia essence)
• Ginger Syrup from stem ginger
• Chopped crystallised for sprinkling on top

2 x 8" sandwich cake tins

What you do

• Preheat the oven to 180c 
• Oil spray the tins and flour dust with tapioca flour, tap the tins to remove the excess
• Mix the finely chopped stem ginger, eggs, sugar, flour, ground almonds, ginger and baking powder and cooled melted butter in a large mixing bowl or stand mixer until you have a smooth mixture.
• Working quickly pour into the prepared tins, splitting the mixture equally between the two tins.
• Place in the oven and bake for 25 -30 minutes until golden, well risen and firm to the touch in the middle.
• Cool in the tins on a wire rack and once fully cool remove from the tins by loosening with a palette knife around the tin and up turning onto a tea towel.
• To make the buttercream whip the softened butter and icing sugar, syrup and lemon juice in a mixer, beat thoroughly for at least 7 minutes, until all the sugar has dissolved and the buttercream isn't gritty.
• Smooth just over half the quantity of buttercream on the base layer of the cake, top with the other layer and then create the topping buttercream.
• Smooth the rest of the buttercream on the top of the cake and sprinkle on the middle the chopped crystallised ginger.
• Ta dah ! Ginger Zinger Cake, best served slightly cool with a refreshing cup of tea. 

If you wished you could add another ginger or lemon layer to the flavours by using a ginger jam or lemon marmalade to fill the cake along with the buttercream.

Given the quantity of ginger contained in this recipe I am including this post in the link up for "The Spice Trail" hosted by Bangers and Mash

                                                      

I am also linking up to Casa Castello for Bake of the Week too, as I promised when I blogged this cake I would link up as it contains sorghum flour.


                                                       

Parsnip, apple and maple syrup cake for Harvest Home Clandestine Cake club event

The theme for this months clandestine cake club is Harvest Home - fruit and vegetable cakes. I enjoy baking with vegetables even the more unusual such as avocado as I appreciate the flavour, texture and moisture they can bring to your cake.

This cake is an easy bake and is already featured on the blog here 

For this cake club I decided to pimp the decoration and also make it a layer cake suitable for the event. Its easy to make a layer cake just carefully slice across your 2 sandwich cakes, hey presto 4 layers. These were then filled with vanilla buttercream and one layer was homemade damson jam and then topped off with spun sugar decorations, the secret to perfect soft fluffy buttercream is to whip the mix for at least 6 minutes and to ensure that the butter is soft before using.

Spun sugar is relatively straight forward to make from sugar melted in a pan, once golden in colour, remove from the heat and stir until you sense some resistance. This is the point you make the shapes you wish, I chose free form shapes. Protect your spun sugar from humidity and only prepare an hour or so before you wish to use it otherwise it melts and goes very sticky.

I had a minor disaster on the way to the venue where the top two layers slid off the two bottom layers, so apologies for the slightly shoddy appearance  As a seasoned cake clubber I am used to this sort of thing happening and managed to arrange a recovery of sorts, the spun sugar decoration were added once I got to the location so survived intact.

Goosnargh loaf cake with orange buttercream filling and icing

Given that the theme for the latest clandestine cake club was "Lancashire afternoon Tea", I decided to have a go at re inventing the Goosnargh cake as a real cake.

Goosnargh cakes are a traditional Lancashire delicacy which are more like a biscuit than a cake, however there is traditional English cake "The Seed Cake" that shares some similarities. 

The Seed Cake features caraway seeds in much the same way as a Goosnargh cake does so that  was the inspiration for the cake, given that this was cake club I needed to enhance the cake so I decided on a fresh orange buttercream, caraway and orange being a traditional pairing.

I used Nigel Slater's Seed Cake recipe which can be found here, please pay heed to Nigel's advice re the quantity of caraway you use as otherwise your cake will be horrid, I have ignored his advice however when it comes to gilding the lily and plumped for fresh orange buttercream which seem to go down well at cake club.

To make the orange buttercream filling and icing , I used softened butter, icing sugar, juice of 1 fresh squeezed orange and the zest of the said orange, whipped until not grainy in my trusty mixer. A lovely fresh contrast to the caraway in the cake.


I am entering this post into Farmers Girl  Nigel Slater Dish of the Month linky that she runs with Sue over at A Little bit of heaven on a plate.

                                              

CCC No 5 - Rhubarb Victoria Sponge cake

For the spring meeting of the South Lancashire clandestine cake club I decided that I wanted to make a cake that was seasonal and celebrated the emerging new life that is all around at this time of year. So I choose to use the every faithful victoria sponge but create a rhubarb compote to fill it from the early season rhubarb that is growing like topsy in the garden right now. For a great victoria sponge check out my earlier post which you can find here.

To make the rhubarb compote I finely diced one large stick of rhubarb and cooked it gently in pan with 1tbsp of soft brown sugar and a similar quantity of fruit juice or water, remove from heat as soon as the rhubarb is cooked.

To make the vanilla buttercream , mix 250g of icing sugar, 125g of softened butter and a good drizzle of vanilla paste in a mixer until softened and well blended, check that the buttercream isn't grainy.

Assemble the cake using the cooled compote and some of the buttercream as filling, top the cake with the rest of the buttercream and decorate to your taste.

Our venue for the event was the lovely Thyme Deli in Horwich, a lovely cafe deli run by the wonderful Amanda that is funkly decorated in a vintage style, which serves great local food and sells a fabulous range of foods, bakeware and kitchenalia. Pay them a visit if you are in the area you won't be disappointed.

If you are interested in joining the fun at a local clandestine cake club visit the website for more details.