Yep, another Wednesday! I was figuring I'd get to some baking while X was having his middle of the day nap, but today worked out a little different to other Wednesdays for some reason - it actually ended up that X had two naps - one during this morning's run, and again in the afternoon. I was going to bake something and bring X with me to an afternoon tea fundraiser if X's naps aligned, but it wasn't to be. The baking still happened though! X's Po-Po popped by for a visit, bearing a dozen eggs and a bit of lunch, and I happened to be in the middle of getting stuff going with this cake, except that I forgot to halve the quantities like I'd done previously, which meant that I really had to use a big tray to bake... Decay told me that I'd done a very bad thing by making this cake because it was um... rather delicious ... so I asked if he'd like for me to get rid of it, which then led to some comment about only if I ate the whole slab in one sitting, and that is totally not going to happen!
I've made this recipe previously, having bookmarked it ages ago, baked it (as per the original modifications, but didn't adjust enough for the difference between hot chilli powder, and not quite so hot chilli powder), copied it out into my recipe book, and made it again a few times, both with and without the chilli addition. X's Gran did like it the first time, but she was wondering if I was trying to burn her mouth out with the amount of kick the chilli had! I figured it would be reasonable fodder for an afternoon tea fundraiser plate - it makes plenty, it involves chocolate, but it's not your standard chocolate cake.
Chocolate Gingerbread
Adapted from recipe at Esurientes, from Nigella Lawson - Feast
Preheat oven to 170°C.
Line a baking tray (30cm x 20cm x 5cm height) with baking paper, or otherwise grease/line your choice of tin *****
In a medium saucepan, melt the butter, sugar, golden syrup, treacle/molasses, and spices together.
While you're waiting for everything to melt together, dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in the warm water in a small glass.
Once the butter mixture is melted, take it off the heat, and beat in the milk, eggs, and bicarb-ed water. You might want to temper the egg before beating it into the mix - I found it was ok to add the milk and bicarb-ed water, mix that up, and crack the egg (one at a time) into the glass that the bicarb-ed water was in, spoon in a bit of the buttery mixture and break up the egg a bit before pouring it in to combine with the rest of the saucepan of buttery sugary stuff.
Sift the flour and cocoa, and beat this into the buttery sugary mixture with a wooden spoon. Or, you could go the way I did (cos I used a small saucepan instead of a medium one), and sift the flour and cocoa into a medium sized bowl, make a well, then pour the buttery sugar mixture in and mix it all up. It might take a bit of work to get all the clumpy bits out. ******
Fold in the chocolate chips/chunks, then pour into the prepared tin.
Bake for 40-60 minutes, or until cake tests cleanish, and it has risen and is firm. As long as it's not wobbly, you're good (it could be slightly damp underneath the set top). Let this cool in the tin for a bit, then move to a rack to finish cooling.
If you're wanting to ice this cake*******, you could go with the suggested icing:
* I used treacle, cos that's what we've got in our (my?) baking cupboard. Although now that I know where to get molasses from, I might have to give this a go with molasses instead ...
** Shockingly (!), this time I actually stuck with the suggested measurements for the spices. However, this recipe does take to having the spices doubled for more impact. Except maybe the chilli - that one really REALLY depends on what kind of chilli powder you've got. Learnt that one the hard way!
*** Didn't put chili powder in this time, because X hasn't got a chilli tongue. Although as long as he's living with us, he'll eventually build some sort of tolerance.
**** This time I used whatever was left of some dark chocolate chips (about ... 100g or so?), and made the difference with milk chocolate chips. Prior to X's existence, I used to buy blocks of chocolate and chop them up to add to the batter. Or, I'd get Decay to chop them for me (more often than not!). You get more choice about what kind of chocolate you can put in if you go this way - I've put orange chocolate, toffee chocolate, all sorts of interesting things in.
***** Back when my mini loaf tins were still functional and non-peeling, a half-batch of this recipe filled 8 mini loaf spaces very nicely (about half full) - bake for about 20-25 minutes. You could also make this in mini cupcake tins - from memory, each tray of 24 bakes for about 10-12 minutes, and I think a half-batch made about ... 2 trays worth?
****** I was making this while my Mum (X's Po-Po) was here, and she asked why I didn't just do this part in the Kenwood Chef. I couldn't give her a good reason why - there's just some recipes (like this one, and the choc chip cookies one, and the yogurt cake one) where I end up putting it together without the use of an electric mixer, and I've never done it any other way. It might help with getting rid of the clumpies though - up to you!
******* I don't think I've ever bothered to ice this cake - it's pretty rare that I get to icing any cake or cookie I make - too much fiddly hassle sometimes, especially when I was doing this in the mini-cupcake tins. Now that I'm trying to fit in a bit of baking without too much fiddliness, most of the cake making ends up being one big cake, rather than lots of single portion mini cakes, so icing things has occasionally been feasible again. Having said that, today's cake wasn't iced, because I didn't need to go out to get any of the ingredients to make the cake, and wasn't about to go to the shops just to get the ginger ale so I could make the icing. So no icing again!
Adapted from recipe at Esurientes, from Nigella Lawson - Feast
- 175g butter
- 125g dark brown sugar
- 200g golden syrup
- 200g black treacle (or molasses) *
- 2 teaspoon ground ginger **
- 1/4 teaspoon ground clove
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- optional: 1-1 1/2 teaspoon chilli powder ***
- 1 1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 2 tablespoons of warm water
- 2 eggs
- 250ml (1 cup) milk
- 275g plain flour
- 40g cocoa
- 175g chocolate (chips, or chopped block - up to you) ****
Preheat oven to 170°C.
Line a baking tray (30cm x 20cm x 5cm height) with baking paper, or otherwise grease/line your choice of tin *****
In a medium saucepan, melt the butter, sugar, golden syrup, treacle/molasses, and spices together.
While you're waiting for everything to melt together, dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in the warm water in a small glass.
Once the butter mixture is melted, take it off the heat, and beat in the milk, eggs, and bicarb-ed water. You might want to temper the egg before beating it into the mix - I found it was ok to add the milk and bicarb-ed water, mix that up, and crack the egg (one at a time) into the glass that the bicarb-ed water was in, spoon in a bit of the buttery mixture and break up the egg a bit before pouring it in to combine with the rest of the saucepan of buttery sugary stuff.
Sift the flour and cocoa, and beat this into the buttery sugary mixture with a wooden spoon. Or, you could go the way I did (cos I used a small saucepan instead of a medium one), and sift the flour and cocoa into a medium sized bowl, make a well, then pour the buttery sugar mixture in and mix it all up. It might take a bit of work to get all the clumpy bits out. ******
Fold in the chocolate chips/chunks, then pour into the prepared tin.
Bake for 40-60 minutes, or until cake tests cleanish, and it has risen and is firm. As long as it's not wobbly, you're good (it could be slightly damp underneath the set top). Let this cool in the tin for a bit, then move to a rack to finish cooling.
If you're wanting to ice this cake*******, you could go with the suggested icing:
- 250g icing sugar
- 30g butter
- 1 tablespoon cocoa
- 60ml ginger ale
* I used treacle, cos that's what we've got in our (my?) baking cupboard. Although now that I know where to get molasses from, I might have to give this a go with molasses instead ...
** Shockingly (!), this time I actually stuck with the suggested measurements for the spices. However, this recipe does take to having the spices doubled for more impact. Except maybe the chilli - that one really REALLY depends on what kind of chilli powder you've got. Learnt that one the hard way!
*** Didn't put chili powder in this time, because X hasn't got a chilli tongue. Although as long as he's living with us, he'll eventually build some sort of tolerance.
**** This time I used whatever was left of some dark chocolate chips (about ... 100g or so?), and made the difference with milk chocolate chips. Prior to X's existence, I used to buy blocks of chocolate and chop them up to add to the batter. Or, I'd get Decay to chop them for me (more often than not!). You get more choice about what kind of chocolate you can put in if you go this way - I've put orange chocolate, toffee chocolate, all sorts of interesting things in.
***** Back when my mini loaf tins were still functional and non-peeling, a half-batch of this recipe filled 8 mini loaf spaces very nicely (about half full) - bake for about 20-25 minutes. You could also make this in mini cupcake tins - from memory, each tray of 24 bakes for about 10-12 minutes, and I think a half-batch made about ... 2 trays worth?
****** I was making this while my Mum (X's Po-Po) was here, and she asked why I didn't just do this part in the Kenwood Chef. I couldn't give her a good reason why - there's just some recipes (like this one, and the choc chip cookies one, and the yogurt cake one) where I end up putting it together without the use of an electric mixer, and I've never done it any other way. It might help with getting rid of the clumpies though - up to you!
******* I don't think I've ever bothered to ice this cake - it's pretty rare that I get to icing any cake or cookie I make - too much fiddly hassle sometimes, especially when I was doing this in the mini-cupcake tins. Now that I'm trying to fit in a bit of baking without too much fiddliness, most of the cake making ends up being one big cake, rather than lots of single portion mini cakes, so icing things has occasionally been feasible again. Having said that, today's cake wasn't iced, because I didn't need to go out to get any of the ingredients to make the cake, and wasn't about to go to the shops just to get the ginger ale so I could make the icing. So no icing again!
Oh wow, I totally want to make this. Looks amazing!
Hey, I have some molasses at home, my uncle works in the sugar industry and got some for me cos I didn't know where to buy it (turns out health food stores stock it which you prob know now!)
Anyway I made gingerbread with it last Christmas and they were kinda scarily strong with the molasses flavour, it was too intense and kinda gross.
I made them again with one third molasses and two thirds golden syrup and it was much better, the molasses didn't overpower.
So, just go easy on the molasses is my advice. And maybe I can get you some if you want - he gave me a whole litre and um, I have used like half a cup...
Also, will an item about snickerdoodles be forthcoming?? Hehe.
Funnily enough, I actually saw molasses for sale at the supermarket the other day - it was in the health food section, and I've also seen it at a few delis, and of course it's also available at http://usafoods.com.au ... there was a Good Eats (Alton Brown) episode on sugars, and if you ever ran out of brown sugar you could throw some white sugar and molasses in a food processor and give it a whizz. And yes, a post about snickerdoodles will happen, once I've got a moment (ditto about posts to XMTS and other places!)
Yay! I totally made this on the weekend and it was totally fantastic. Thanks for your chef-helpdesk assistance! And thanks for giving me the inspiration!
The dough was a bit runnier than a usual cake so I needed your reassurance - phew.
Did your choc-chips melt into the cake? I think that was supposed to happen?
Anyway, its a pretty straightforward cake to prepare and bake, but it tastes sensational. Highly recommended. I roughly doubled all the spices except the chilli and it was just fine, you got a hint of heat and lots of yumm flavours. Used a combo of molasses and treacle, as well as the golden syrup.
And I used the electrix mixer to get rid of clumps as I wasn't patient enough to do it by hand.
I'm so making this again and might try the icing next time - its totally fine without though, I agree.
:)