I’ve recently been craving something gingery sweet and as soon as the craving started, I stumbled across Neil Perry’s ginger cake with lemon and pistachio icing (see recipe). I had to make this cake and quick! It was as if the stars were all aligned as not only did I stumble across the recipe, but I actually had time to make it to satisfy my craving! Little girl was feeling under the weather and ended up going for a 3 hour nap one afternoon allowing me precious hours to bake!
This cake is really delicious. It’s like a cake version of a gingerbread cookie! It’s so light and moist and has a wonderfully intense ginger kick (as it calls for freshly grated ginger). Perfect to satisfy a ginger craving! Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough fresh ginger at hand (having used most of it in the tofu fa I’d made the night before) so I substituted the rest with ginger powder (lots and lots and lots of it).
Lemon frosting on its own is the best, but paired with the ginger cake, it was wonderful! I could give or take on the chopped pistachios, they definitely do add texture and is a lovely complement but the real hero is the cake itself and the frosting!
I can’t rave enough about this cake! If you’re as much of a fan of gingery sweets as I am, then this cake is definitely worthwhile making!
Definitely one I will be making again – especially for those special festive occasions at the end of the year!
Ginger cake with lemon and pistachio icing
Equipment
- Food Processor / Mixer
- Mixing Bowl
- Microplane
Ingredients
- 1 cup Golden Syrup
- 3/4 cup Caster Sugar
- 3/4 cup Sunflower oil
- 2 cups Plain Flour
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1 dash white pepper
- 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 2 large free range eggs
- 100 g finely grated ginger
For the icing
- 125 g salted butter diced at room temp
- 2 cups icing sugar
- 1 tbsp lemon zest
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp single cream
- 1/4 cup pistachio chopped
Instructions
- Note this is an exert taken directly from Neil Perry's post on goodfood.com.au
Pre-Preparation
- Line base and sides of a 22cm-diameter round spring-form cake tin with a double layer of baking paper, allowing a 2cm border above the top of the tin.
Combine Ingredients
- Combine golden syrup, caster sugar and oil in a bowl and mix well. Mixture will separate into layers. Set aside.Sift flour, cinnamon and cloves together into a bowl and set aside.Bring 1 cup of water to the boil in a saucepan, add bicarbonate of soda and stir gently into sugar mixture until well combined, then stir in ginger. Gradually whisk in sifted flour mixture then add eggs one at a time and mix well.Pour mixture into prepared tin and bake at 170°C for 60 minutes or until a skewer inserted into cake comes out clean.Stand in tin for 10 minutes before turning out on a wire rack to cool.
For the Icing
- For the icing, whip the butter with the paddle attachment in a mixer. Introduce icing sugar, one cup at a time, beating continuously on a low speed.Add lemon zest and juice, beating in until smooth. Gradually pour in cream until you achieve a consistency that is easy to spread.Ice the cake and sprinkle with chopped pistachios. Slice with a hot, clean knife and serve.
