Ginger treacle sponge

Classic cake recipe for 6 - 8 people, takes only 45 mins; recipe has butter, breadcrumb, golden syrup, ginger, brown sugar, egg, vanilla extract, lemon, self-raising flour, ground ginger, caster sugar, clementine, stem ginger and golden syrup.

Ginger treacle sponge

Ginger treacle sponge

Recipe by Chef Soomro Course: Classic cake
Servings

6 - 8

servings
Prep time

30 mins

Ingredients

  • Egg: 3 large eggs, beaten
  • Lemon: zest 1 lemon
  • Butter: 175g softened butter, plus extra for greasing
  • Brown Sugar: 175g soft light brown sugar
  • Ginger: 1 tbsp ginger syrup from a jar of stem ginger
  • Caster Sugar: 200g caster sugar
  • Breadcrumb: 2 tbsp breadcrumb
  • Self Raising Flour: 175g self-raising flour
  • Vanilla Extract: 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • Ground Ginger: 1 tsp ground ginger
  • Clementine: 1-2 clementines, unpeeled and thinly sliced
  • Stem Ginger: 6 balls stem ginger, chunkily diced, plus 3 tbsp syrup from the ginger jar
  • Golden Syrup: 3 tbsp golden syrup

Directions

  1. Butter a 1 litre pudding basin. Mix the breadcrumbs, golden syrup and ginger syrup and place in the bottom of the basin.
  2. To prepare the steamer, put a small, upturned saucer or trivet into a large saucepan big enough to fit the pudding basin. Put the kettle on.
  3. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Add the beaten eggs, vanilla and lemon zest, then sieve the flour and ginger into the mixture. Fold everything together with a big spoon or spatula. Fill the pudding basin with the sponge mixture.
  4. Cut out large sheets of greaseproof paper and foil, big enough to fit over the basin with a 2in overhang. Sit greaseproof on foil, fold a pleat into the middle, then butter the greaseproof. Put, butter-side down, over the pudding, and tie tightly under the rim with string. Sit the basin in the saucepan, add enough water from the kettle to come halfway up the basin sides, cover with a lid and simmer gently for 1 hr 45 mins.
  5. Meanwhile, candy your clementine slices by pouring 100ml water from the kettle over the sugar in a small frying pan. Heat until melted, then add the clementine slices and bubble until they are shiny and sticky with sugar. Lift out with tongs and set aside on baking parchment to dry.
  6. Check the pudding is cooked by inserting a metal skewer - there should be no raw mixture on the skewer, but you may find a little sticky syrup from the bottom.
  7. For the topping, put the syrups in a small pan and bubble to thicken for a few mins, then stir in the ginger chunks and a few clementine slices. Turn the pudding out onto a serving plate and spoon over some syrupy ginger topping. Serve with creme fraiche and custard.