Thanks to all this damp and misty weather, Landcroft House is currently going through an afternoon tea and cake obsession. Here's today's simple offering. I like the last minute addition of a sticky orange glaze but it isn't very authentic and traditional Jamaican ginger cake often has grated root ginger in for a bit of heat - try adding some if you fancy it.Serves 10
175g butter
175g light brown or muscovado sugar
175g black treacle
250g plain flour
11/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 - 3 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
200ml milk
2 eggs
finely grated zest and juice of 1 orange
50g caster sugar
1 Preheat the oven to 180C / Gas 4. Melt then butter, brown sugar and treacle together in a pan.
Scrape into a bowl and add the flour, bicarb, spices, milk, eggs and orange zest and beat with a hand-held whisk for a couple of minutes until smooth.
2 Pour into a lined tin (mine was 20cm x 26cm) and bake for 30 - 40 minutes.
3 While the cake is baking, squeeze the orange juice into a small bowl, add the caster sugar, stir well together and set aside.
4 Take the cake out of the oven, drizzle over the orange sugar and leave to cool before cutting.
