Name: Squidgy lemon-ginger cake
Total time: 2 h
Yield: Cuts into 12 slices
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 200g date stoned; 200g butter cut in pieces; 300g dark muscovado sugar; 2 eggs; 50g fresh or frozen root ginger grated; 1 lemon grated zest; 200g self-raising flour; 1 Bramley apple (about 250g/9oz) peeled and chopped into pea-sized pieces; 50g white chocolate; 1 tbsp chopped candied lemon peel, to decorate; 1 tbsp sugar ‘coffee crystals’, to decorate

Home
Recipes
Squidgy lemon-ginger cake

Squidgy lemon-ginger cake

Xanthe Clay

Save recipe

Cuts into 12 slices

Easy

Total time: 2 hrs

Ready in 2 hours, plus cooling

A star rating of 4.7 out of 5.42 ratingsRate

loading...

This dense, sticky ginger cake is easy to make and a great Sunday teatime treat

Freezable (Freezable when undecorated)

Skip to ingredients

Alternatives

Complete the dish

Ingredients

Nutrition

Units:

MetricUS

200g date

stoned
200g butter

cut in pieces
300g dark muscovado sugar
2 eggs
50g fresh or frozen root ginger

grated
1 lemon

grated zest
200g self-raising flour
1 Bramley apple

(about 250g/9oz) peeled and chopped into pea-sized pieces
50g white chocolate
1 tbsp chopped candied lemon

peel, to decorate
1 tbsp sugar

‘coffee crystals’, to decorate

Keep the screen awake with cook mode on the Good Food app.

Nutrition: per slice

kcal376
fat16g
saturates9g
carbs57g
sugars30g
fibre2g
protein4g
salt0.53g

low

Method

step 1

Heat oven to 160C/fan 140C/gas 3. Butter and line a 20cm round cake tin (about 8cm deep) with baking parchment. Put dates in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Heat the butter in a small pan until melted, and stir in the sugar. Allow to cool slightly.
step 2

Beat in the eggs, ginger and lemon zest. Drain the dates and chop them finely. Scrape them into the pan too, and mix well. Stir in the flour, then apple. Spoon into the cake tin, put the tin on a baking sheet (this stops the base browning too much) then bake for about 1¼ hrs, until well risen. A skewer stuck into the cake should come out with a few moist crumbs sticking to it. Leave it to cool in the tin.
step 3

Break the white chocolate into a non-metallic bowl. Heat in the microwave, on medium setting, in one minute bursts until melted (or in a bowl over a pan of simmering water). Remove the cake from the tin and peel off the paper. Trickle the chocolate over the cake, scatter with the crystallised lemon peel and coffee crystals and leave to set before serving. If well wrapped, the cake keeps for at least a week – it just gets better and better. Or, wrap the cooled cake in several layers of cling film before decorating, and freeze for up to two months.

Recipe from Good Food magazine, January 2005

Comments, questions and tips

Rate this recipe

What is your star rating out of 5?1 star out of 52 stars out of 53 stars out of 54 stars out of 55 stars out of 5

Choose the type of message you'd like to post

CommentQuestionTip

Overall rating

A star rating of 4.7 out of 5.42 ratings

Get 3 months of Good Food All Access

Get 3 months of Good Food All Access for just £6. Find triple-tested recipes that take the stress out of deciding what to cook, spend less time planning, and more time enjoying the season.

Subscribe now