Christmas started at the weekend for us when we went to a friends Christmas party. The same weekend each year, our friend puts on the most Christmassy of gatherings. I wrote about it a couple of years ago here. This year I baked this Chocolate + Ginger cake to take along. It's adapted from How to Be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson. You can replace the ginger preserve with the preserve of your choice. I've had successes with raspberry, marmalade and fig, but somehow the ginger version really comes into its own at Christmas. It's a super-quick recipe, perfect for this busy time of year.
Chocolate Ginger Cake.
100 g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
300 g good-quality ginger preserve
300 g good-quality ginger preserve
150 g sugarpinch of salt
2 large eggs, beaten
150 g self-raising flour
icing sugar to decorate (optional)150 g self-raising flour
Preheat the oven to 350°F / 180°C. Grease and line the base of a 20 cm spring-form tin with baking paper and set aside.
Put the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and set over a low heat to melt. When it’s almost melted, stir in the chocolate and allow it to melt a little. Take the pan off the heat and stir until the butter and chocolate are smooth and melted. Add in the ginger preserve, sugar, salt and eggs and stir well until everything is combined. Sift in the flour and stir again (taking care not to overmix), then pour the batter into the prepared tin. Bake in the oven for 45 to 50 minutes, until a tester inserted into the centre comes out clean. Set the pan on a wire rack and allow the cake to cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes before you turn it out. Once it’s completely cooled decorate as desired, or leave completely plain.
For this occasion I topped the cake with drizzled icing and silver balls and a festive scene. It can also just be finished off with a little icing sugar passed through a sieve, like a dusting of snow. Simple.
Photography: Buttercup Days
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