Gingerbread Bundt Cake

I'm really excited to tell you that I have signed up for That's Sage's online food photography course Food Composed. As you may have noticed I have been trying to make more of an effort with the photo's of my food, both for the blog and for Instagram. I've been watching videos on YouTube, The Bite Shot is a favourite of mine and has been really helpful and informative, and up until now all my pictures have been taken on my phone. In fact I bought my phone, the Samsung Galaxy A7, on the basis that it had a great camera (it actually has 3!) but one thing remains that when they talk about taking pictures they mean taking them with their DSLR camera's. I do have a DSLR but it's around 12 years old. I bought it when I was at University and as of yet I have used it once when taking pictures of food because using my phone has been so much more convenient.
Enrolling on a course that I have had to pay for is me finally pushing myself and putting on my big girl pants. I will be getting the camera out of it's case and reacquainting myself with it and (hopefully!) learning how to use it well with the help of the Food Composed course. My goal is that I will start using it more, in particular for images for this blog. It's exciting to invest in myself and push myself. I think I've floated for a little while trying to find what my passion is, what I enjoy and what I want to be when I'm a grown up (even at 32, married and with a baby) but one thing I've learnt, especially since starting up my blog again after Wee Man was born, is that I really enjoy photographing and styling the food that I make and maybe if you are here reading this you enjoy what I do too!
The best thing about the course is that it is online and so I can fit it around everything that I have going on and I am not trying to squeeze it in to a particular time slot. I can do an hour of it in the evenings after Wee Man has gone to bed and I can do bits in the daytime whilst he naps or if he's actually playing quietly for a little bit and not trying to throw himself off the sofa, which is one of his favourite things to do at the moment, and is giving me palpitations every time. I take my eyes off him for a second and find he's climbed up again. Honestly I understand when people say they didn't have grey hair until they had kids!

Another exciting thing that is linked to all my growth with my photography skills is that I purchased some backdrops from PhotoBackdrops and two of my images are now featured on their Instagram and on their website!!! Just scroll down to the @photobackdropsco on Instagram section on their homepage!!

A good friend of mine bought me a tin of black treacle last time she visited and it has been in the cupboard staring at me every time I opened it. I have wanted to use it to make a ginger cake since before Christmas - it has been eye-balling me for that long! - but I hadn't got round to it, until now! I am so glad I did because this cake was everything I wanted it to be. If your Nan used to bake a ginger cake or if you have ever had a shop bought Jamaican Ginger Cake you are on the right lines for this cake. I don't want you to get confused. I know it says Gingerbread but this is not a like a gingerbread biscuit that you have in the shape of a little man or a house this is a dark, rich, sticky, spiced cake. It is a cake that actually tastes better after it has sat for a day or two and the flavours develop. You will find it ironic that with all the baking I do I don't own a cake tin and because of this I had to store this cake in the cupboard with all our plates. Whilst this cake sat in there that cupboard smelt DIVINE. It was like a warm spicey hug every time you opened the door.

This cake has a double dose of ginger and a secret ingredient which may surprise you and that is beer. The beer helps bump up that richness and that malty quality to the cake. My advise is to choose a dark ale, the darker the better. I used a HerfstBok which is a Dutch beer typically available Autumn through Winter. It's a dark ruby colour and has a delicious sweetness to it. When it's in season I always make sure I have a few cheeky bottles in the house. If I was in the UK I probably would choose Newcastle Brown Ale or even Guinness if I wanted a really rich flavour. Don't be put off by the sound of it if you are not a fan of beer. Just trust me on this one and if you make this cake I'd love to know what you used - just leave me a comment!

I used my Bundt tin for this recipe but if you don't have one you could just as easily use a 20cm springform tin but you would have to adjust the baking time and perhaps the temperature slightly (I would say take it down to 160°c for at least 50 minutes but as always use the skewer test to make sure). If you use a bundt tin I can not impress on you enough the importance of greasing and flouring your tin REALLY well before you start. If you don't, even if your tin says it's non stick, you could end up with a cake that is stuck inside the tin. I have seen experienced bakers lament over cakes that have ended up in the bin because they stuck. Another important step not to skip is to let the cake sit in the tin once it has come out the oven for 10 minutes before you try and turn it out. If you try and turn it out too soon your cake won't have firmed up enough and could break as you turn it out and if you wait too long the cake will cool too much, sugars in it will harden and stick and your cake might not come out at all. Ten minutes seems to be that golden window to Bundt perfection. Set a timer. Be patient and don't forget.

Gingerbread Bundt Cake
Serves 16

Ingredients
Cake
350g Plain Flour (plus extra for dusting)
3 3/4 tsp Ground Ginger
1½ tsp Cinnamon
½ tsp Mixed Spice
¼ tsp Cardamom
¼ tsp Salt
1 tsp Baking Soda
200g Unsalted Butter (plus extra for greasing the tin)
210g Black Treacle
200g Dark Brown Sugar
5 Balls of Stem Ginger in Syrup roughly chopped + 2 tbsp Ginger Syrup
100g Beer (preferably a dark ale or porter)
100g Full Fat Milk
2 Eggs

Icing
1 tbsp Lemon Juice
1-2 tbsp Ginger Syrup
150g Icing Sugar

• Preheat oven to 170°c. Brush the inside of the bundt pan liberally with melted butter making sure to get into all the cracks and creases then sprinkle a table spoon full or so of flour into the pan. Make sure the flour covers all the butter and tap out any excess.
• Sieve the flour, spices, salt and baking soda together in a bowl and set to one side.
• Place the butter, treacle, sugar, stem ginger and ginger syrup in a pan and warm on a medium heat until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.
• Whisk together the milk, beer and eggs in a large jug.
• Pour the cooled sugar and treacle mixture into the flour and mix briefly before adding the other liquid ingredients and mixing until just combined.
• Pour the mixture into the prepared bundt tin and bake in the centre of the pre heated oven for 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
• Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
• To make the icing place the icing sugar in a bowl and add the lemon juice then add enough ginger syrup to make an icing that is thick but you can still drizzle it. Place the cake on a plate and drizzle the icing over the cake.
• The cake will keep for a week in an airtight container.

For more images of my cooking adventures and sneak peaks of what's to come on the blog follow me on Instagram @_cooknoevil_