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Ginger cakes with lime buttercream and pineapple sunflowers
Makes 12 Cakes, Bread and Pastries
Ingredients
- 60g unsalted butter, plus extra, melted, for greasing
- 125g golden syrup
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 125ml milk
- 125g plain flour
- 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1⁄2tsp baking powder
- 1 heaped tsp ground ginger
- 1⁄2tsp mixed spice
- 100g soft brown sugar
- 40g finely chopped stem ginger
For the fresh lime buttercream
- 200g unsalted butter
- 400g icing sugar
- grated zest 3 limes
- juice 2 limes
For the pineapple sunflowers
- 1 small pineapple, trimmed, peeled and cut into the thinnest rounds possible
- gold lustre spray
You will need
- 12-hole removable-base cake tin
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4. Brush the insides of the cake tin with melted butter (or spray with quick-release spray).
Melt the butter and syrup together in a saucepan over a medium heat until melted. Remove from the heat and then add the egg and milk and stir until smooth.
Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, salt and spices into a bowl. Stir in the sugar.
Make a well in the centre, pour the liquid into the centre of the dry ingredients and mix until smooth. Stir in the chopped ginger.
Divide the ginger cake mixture equally among the 12 holes (around 40g in each) and bake for 40 minutes, until risen and firm to the touch. Leave to cool for 5 minutes in the tin, before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.
To make the lime buttercream, blend all the ingredients together until smooth and light.
To make the pineapple sunflowers, preheat the oven to 110C/90C Fan/Gas 1⁄4. Pat the pineapple slices dry with kitchen paper. Line 2 baking sheets with non-stick baking paper and lay the pineapple slices on top. Bake for 11⁄2-2 hours, turning the slices over every 30 minutes, until the pieces are slightly shrunken and dry.
Transfer the pineapple pieces to the wells of a cupcake tin to encourage the pineapple to set in the flower shape and return to the oven for 5-10 minutes, until they are dry and the edges are starting to curl. Leave to cool in the tin, then spray with gold lustre.
Once the cakes are baked and cooled, turn them upside down – they will be quite sticky.
Fit a large piping bag with a star nozzle and fill with the lime buttercream. Pipe a generous swirl of buttercream on the top of each cake and press a pineapple flower on the top at an angle so they are all facing in one direction – a little like natural sunflowers in a field when they all turn towards the sun. The cakes will keep in a container with a lid for up to 3 days.
This recipe was taken from the May 2020 issue of Food and Travel.
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