Quite often my hair smells of spice, particularly if it gets wet in the rain. There are very few days when spices aren't used in our house. We've filled two double spice racks and are now balancing extra jars on top.
As I've been cooking a lot of Indian and Middle Eastern dishes lately, I've really enjoyed using some of the sweeter spices in savoury dishes - especially cinnamon, as it adds such a lovely softness against other spices.
When I saw this recipe by Shelina Permalloo in the Sainsbury's magazine I knew it would go down a storm in our house. Muscavado sugar is one of my most favourite things (and also makes it into a lot of my savoury dishes). The full-on spice balances it out and stops the cake feeling too sweet.
The original recipe uses the topping as a buttercream once the cake is cool but I prefer the method here which gives it a coating a bit like McVitie's Jamaican Ginger cake (yum).
Oh and I added the rum, though you can leave that out if you prefer. My husband said it needed more rum but he'd always say that!
As I've been cooking a lot of Indian and Middle Eastern dishes lately, I've really enjoyed using some of the sweeter spices in savoury dishes - especially cinnamon, as it adds such a lovely softness against other spices.
When I saw this recipe by Shelina Permalloo in the Sainsbury's magazine I knew it would go down a storm in our house. Muscavado sugar is one of my most favourite things (and also makes it into a lot of my savoury dishes). The full-on spice balances it out and stops the cake feeling too sweet.
The original recipe uses the topping as a buttercream once the cake is cool but I prefer the method here which gives it a coating a bit like McVitie's Jamaican Ginger cake (yum).
Oh and I added the rum, though you can leave that out if you prefer. My husband said it needed more rum but he'd always say that!
Ingredients:
175ml whole milk
2 tbsp ground ginger
1 tbsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cinnamon
75g dark muscavado sugar
75g softened unsalted butter
75g black treacle
100g golden syrup
200g self-raising flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 medium egg lightly beaten
For the topping:
35g very soft unsalted butter
55g dark muscavado sugar
25g icing sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp dark rum
How to make it:
1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C/Gas 4.
2. Grease and line a 20cmx9cm loaf tin with baking paper.
3. Put the milk, butter, spices, sugar, treacle and syrup in a saucepan and slowly bring to a simmer, until all the sugar is dissolved.
4. Sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda into a large mixing bowl.
5. Pour the wet mixture onto the dry ingredients and stir well.
6. Add the beaten egg and mix thoroughly.
7. Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf tin and bake for 30mins, or until a skewer comes out clean.
8. Put all the topping ingredients into a bowl and mix.
9. Once the cake is cooked, remove from the tin carefully and place on a cooling rack with some newspaper underneath (this can get messy!)
10. Use a cocktail stick to pierce 10-12 holes in the cake without going through the bottom.
11. Take spoonfuls of the topping and spread onto the cake while it's still hot. It will sink into the holes and form a thin crust on the cake. Use the spoon to make sure it covers the sides as well as the top.
12. Leave the cake to cool and the topping to set - if you can wait that long!
Recipe adapted from Shelina Permalloo for Sainsbury's Magazine.
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