Boiled ginger cake

Ginger cake. Not exactly something I can’t live without, but it’s very pleasant now and then. I was intrigued by this recipe from the Observer Food Monthly (scroll down to number 21 here) as the mixture is boiled before the eggs and flour are added. The recipe was chosen by Sam and Sam Clark, of Moro fame, and is from The Constance Spry Cookery Book – a 1950s classic.

I’m not quite sure what boiling the butter, sugar, fruit and black treacle achieves, as opposed to just melting it all together, but the finished cake has a nice moist, reasonably dense texture.

My rose most unsatisfactorily – the centre didn’t really rise at all, so I’m wondering if the quantities given in the paper are quite right. I’ll have to double-check the book one of these days. Also, you really must leave the boiled mixture to cool properly before you add the eggs, or they’ll just scramble. Which wouldn’t be ideal.