Unpopular opinion – I can’t stand Christmas cake. I love the smell of it, and I really wish I did like it, but I just can’t stand it. Sorry!
I usually go with something along the lines of a nice, hot chocolate cake, with hot chocolate sauce or something, but this year I’ve made a little addition early on, and this cake is a great choice to go with. If I’m honest, this cake would be so well suited to a November sweet treat, what with the theme of toasted marshmallows going so well with bonfire night. But seeing as I didn’t know about it back then, it’ll do for Christmas this year.
You will need…
100g butter
100g dark muscovado sugar
100g black treacle
140g golden syrup
225g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
125ml whole milk
3 medium egg yolks (save the whites for the icing)
For the ginger buttercream icing…
140g softened butter
200g icing sugar
4 small stems ginger, finely chopped
1 tbsp syrup
1/2 tsp ground ginger
Method…
In a small saucepan melt together the butter, sugar, black treacle and syrup, whisking it until it’s a smooth mixture. Once it’s done, put to the side for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 160C/140C/gas mark 3. Grease and line a 2lb loaf tin.
In a bowl mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ground ginger, cinnamon, and a pinch of salt. Add in the warm syrup mixture and the milk, followed by the egg yolks. Whisk until the mixture is a smooth batter. Pour into the baking tin, and bake for around an hour, or until cooked all the way through. Leave to cool in the tin, then cut the top so it’s even and transfer to a cooling rack.
For the buttercream icing, put all the ingredients into a large bowl and mix together. Mash together a little with a fork first to stop the icing flying everywhere.
For the marshmallow icing, put the egg whites, sugar, 1 tbsp of water, and a pinch of salt into a heatproof bowl. Place over a pan of simmering water, making sure the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the water, and whisk carefully until thick and leaving a trail from the whisk – it’ll take about 4 minutes. Remove the bowl from the heat, and whisk for a further 3 minutes until it’s a merringe type consistency – it should leave peaks, which mine didn’t, so my photos are slightly more runny than they should be.
When you’re ready to assemble the cake, slice it length ways three times, and reassemble it together using the buttercream to stick it back together. Then, cover the outside of the cake smoothly with a little of the marshmallow icing you have, leaving some for decoration. Using a piping bag, decorate the rest of the cake using the rest of the marshmallow icing – I also couldn’t do this because my icing was so runny. If you have this problem like me, I used a fork with the blow torch (see next step) to create the peaks on the top.
To take it a step further, use a cook’s blowtorch to – carefully! – toast the icing until it’s a golden brown colour. Serve straight away, or chill for up to two days, removing from the fridge 30 minutes before serving.
xx
