COOKING WITH / GINGER

Recently I turned to my friend Debbie Lewis, a Hereford based Nutritional Therapist specialising in gut health, to share her knowledge on ginger and the importance of including it into our diets whenever possible. Health benefits aside, ginger is a delicious spice which makes the perfect addition to any festive recipe.

To get you in the Christmas spirit, this month Chef Nicole is sharing with us her Ginger Cake recipe. It's been a popular menu item at The Bookshop for a few weeks now, and will no doubt leave your family and friends licking their dessert plates clean.

Dorian

WHAT YOU'LL NEED...

• 300g Self Raising Flour

• 2 tbsp Ground Ginger

• 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon

• 1 tsp Mixed Spice

• 375ml Milk

• 145g Soft dark brown sugar

1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

• 150g Butter

• 85g Treacle

• 165g Golden Syrup

• 70g Stem Ginger, finely chopped

• 80g Stem Ginger Syrup

• 1 Egg Beaten

METHOD

This makes one round 23cm cake, you can also bake it in a brownie tin for nice square hunks.

Grease and line a 23cm spring form cake tin.

Sift the flour and ground spices into a large bowl.

Pour milk and brown sugar into a pan and let it dissolve, stirring frequently, as soon as it is at scalding point remove from the heat and whisk in the bicarbonate of soda. Leave to one side for 10 minutes.

Put the butter, treacle, golden syrup in a pan and melt on medium heat. Once melted, whisk this into the flour mixture little by little.

Then gradually whisk in the milk mixture until smooth, if you do get lumps then you can sieve it before the next step.

Add the egg, stem ginger and syrup, give it a good whisk and leave at room temperature for 2 hours.

Bake at 160 for about and hour, check at 45 minutes. When it is done it will be fairly firm and come away from the edges slightly. A skewer will come out clean. Leave to cool in the tin before getting it out.

This cake gets better with age and will be absolutely delicious after a day or two.