Ginger & Golden Syrup Bonfire Cake

Its been a busy week at work and whatnot but also in mentally preparing myself for the biggest bake I've ever done. Persephone's wedding cake! Flick and I are pretty honoured to be making a giant stack of brownies for the special day tomorrow. So whilst my kitchen is filled with countless trays and kilos of chocolate, I've just squeezed in some time to make a birthday cake for my Stepdad.

I'm slightly envious of his bonfire night birthday, the perfect time for a big ginger cake and some fireworks in the garden. (We'll forget the year a Catherine wheel set the garden gate on fire!) So whilst I'll be wearing my dancing shoes and shimmying around during P's reception, I'm sending this cake over in my absence.

A super tall, sticky ginger and golden syrup cake, soaked in more golden syrup and topped with sticky toffee popcorn from Popworks. There's heaps of sparklers for the top for tomorrow night, but for now I've improvised! 

G I N G E R   & G O L D E N   S Y R U P   B O N F I R E   C A K E
(Serves 12)

225g golden syrup

100g unsalted butter

100g golden caster sugar

75g glace ginger pieces

200ml full fat milk

2 eggs, beaten

225g self raising flour

1tbsp ground ginger

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

1tsp salt

2-3tbsp extra golden syrup

popcorn to top

• Heat the oven to 180 degrees and grease and line a deep 6 inch round cake tin.
• In a saucepan over a medium heat, melt the golden syrup, butter and sugar together until smooth. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.
• Add the ginger, milk and eggs and stir together.
• Place the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl, make a well in the centre and pour in the wet ingredients.
• Fold the mix together and pour into the prepared tin. Bake for 50-60 minutes, until golden and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Mine started browning on the top half way through so I popped a foil hat on.
• Once baked, remove from the oven and pour over a generous dollop of golden syrup, smoothing over the top.
• Leave to cool in the tin for at least 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool fully.

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Pumpkin & Pecan Praline Cake

I made this cake quickly after work for a family birthday, on Bonfire Night!

I decided to go for full on autumn flavours with a pumpkin sponge and pecan praline topping. All helped with a good smothering of dark chocolate ganache.

For this I used a combination of Marta Stewart recipes, including the pumpkin sponge I made into mini cakes here, and the pecan praline. The ganache was my first attempt and a bit of guestimating!

Pumpkin cake, with dark chocolate ganache & pecan praline
(Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart)
     2 cups plain flour
     1tsp bicarbonate of soda
     1tsp baking powder
     1tsp salt
     1tsp ground cinnamon
     1tsp ground ginger
     1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
     1/4 tsp ground allspice
     1 cup packed light brown sugar
     1 cup granulated sugar
     1 cup butter, melted and cooled
     4 eggs, lightly beaten
     1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin puree (I used Libby's)

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and grease 3 regular sandwich tins.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and allspice; set aside.
• In a large bowl, whisk together brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter and eggs. Add dry ingredients and whisk until smooth. Whisk in the pumpkin puree,
• Divide the batter evenly between the tins. Bake until golden and the tops spring back when touched, roughly 25-30 minutes. Cool in the tins for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Chocolate ganache

     200g dark chocolate

     300ml double cream

     2tbsp golden caster sugar

• Chop the chocolate into small chunks and tip into a heatproof bowl.
• Heat the double cream in a pan, add the sugar and heat until it is about to boil.
• Take off the heat and pour over the chocolate chunks.
• Continue to stir until all chunks have melted and the mixture is smooth.

Pecan praline

(Recipe from Martha Stewart)

     vegetable oil, for baking tray

     1 cup golden caster sugar

     1 cup whole pecans, lightly toasted

• Lightly coat a baking tray with vegetable oil and set aside.
• Mix together the sugar and 1/4 cup of water in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan over a medium heat. Cover and cook, without stirring, until an amber coloured syrup has formed, about 8 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the pecans. Pour mixture onto prepared baking tray and leave to cool completely.
• When the praline has cooled, coarsely chop. 

To finish, I sandwiched the three layers of pumpkin cake with lashings of chocolate ganache. Then, poured the rest over the top. Did a little tidying up and sprinkled over the chopped pecan praline.

There was enough praline left to cover one more cake...Martha advises to store in an airtight container at room temperature.