Gingercake bites
- Published: 4 Nov 24
- Updated: 4 Nov 24
Sticky gingercake gets better with age. After a week or two it will taste richer and more syrupy because treacle and brown sugar are hygroscopic, meaning they absorb moisture from the air, so it’s perfect for giving as a Christmas gift. We’ve also coated each cube of cake with a lemony icing, a bit like fondant fancies, while a spritz of edible shimmer amps up the festive glitz
Keep these in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks or wrap individually to give as a present: sit each cake on a 3cm square of thick card, then wrap in cellophane with a ribbon to tie at the top.
Browse more of our favourite homemade gifts.
- Makes 30
- Hands-on time 30 min. Oven time 35-40 min, plus cooling and 30 min setting
Ingredients
- 100g unsalted butter, plus extra to grease
- 200g plain flour
- 1⁄2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 1⁄2 tsp ground ginger
- 1⁄2 tsp mixed spice
- 100g black treacle
- 140g soft dark brown sugar
- 2 balls stem ginger, finely chopped, plus 2 tbsp of their syrup
- 2 medium eggs, lightly beaten
- 40ml whole milk
For the decoration
- 500g fondant icing sugar
- 80-100ml hot water
- Finely grated zest 1 lemon
- 6 cubes crystallised ginger,finely chopped
- Edible shimmer spray to decorate (optional)
Specialist kit
20cm square cake or baking tin
Method
- Heat the oven to 180°C/160 ̊C fan/gas 4. Grease and line the cake/baking tin with butter and baking paper.
- Mix the flour, bicarb, ground ginger, mixed spice and a pinch of salt in a large bowl. Put the butter, treacle, brown sugar and ginger syrup in a small pan. Heat gently until melted and combined (don’t let it boil).
- Make a well in the flour mixture and pour in the warm syrup mixture, followed by the eggs. Stir until combined, then stir in the milk and chopped stem ginger. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 35-40 minutes until a skewer pushed into the centre comes out with just a few damp crumbs.
- Leave the cake to cool in the tin for around 15 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- Once the cake is cool, cut it into 3cm cubes. You can leave the tops as they are if you’re happy for the bites to be a little uneven (as the cake will have domed while baking), or trim the tops too (and eat them) to make perfect cubes. Sit the cubes of cake spaced out on a wire rack over a baking tray, with the base of the cake on the bottom.
- For the decoration, sift the fondant icing sugar into a large bowl, then whisk in just enough of the hot water to make a thick pouring consistency (you want the icing to flow slowly but easily over the cakes – you nearly always need less water than you think). Add the lemon zest and stir.
- Spoon the icing over the cakes, allowing it to drip down over the sides so they’re thinly and evenly coated. You may need to collect up the icing that’s dripped into the tray, scraping it back into the bowl, to cover the final few cakes. Top each with some crystallised ginger. Set aside at room temperature for 20-30 minutes to set. Spritz with some edible shimmer for added sparkle.
- Recipe from November 2024 Issue
Nutrition
- Calories
- 155kcals
- Fat
- 3.2g (1.9g saturated)
- Protein
- 1.3g
- Carbohydrates
- 30g (25g sugars)
- Fibre
- 0.5g
- Salt
- 0.1g
delicious. tips
Keep these in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks or wrap individually: sit each cake on a 3cm square of thick card, then wrap in cellophane with a ribbon to tie at the top.
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