It is fete season in Canberra. Spring and autumn are the big seasons for schools, preschools, local charities and churches to run fetes. We love them. There are always bargains to check out at the plant stalls, cake stalls, craft stalls, second hand books. Lots of them run really good international food stalls and some are still working in the spirit of the olden times, and offer the children some great activities. Some have lost that joyous part of a fete and are just about shopping....Anyway, on the weekend we went to the Miles Franklin School fete and the Orana school fete (and we don't attend either of those schools and both are outside our local area ...they are just really good).
The reason I introduce this post with a story about fetes is that I always go to the cake stall and try and buy a cake or plate of slices, biscuits that kind of thing. I've even been known to purchase multiple items at the cake stalls. So, get to the point Melissa! I would not buy this cake at a cake stall and yet, I'd be missing out on a piece of heaven.
My cake has an alarming dip in the middle of it. What's going on there? I wonder if it's because I overfilled the pan? And it's really hard for a drab, brown, un-iced cake to compete with the glamourous girls of chocolate icing, sprinkles, cream cheese icing, banana cakes, marble cakes, chocolate cakes with chocolate icing, vanilla cakes with chocolate icing. You get the picture. When you are standing at the cake stall, winsomely choosing your selection, little Miss English Gingerbread Cake is probably not going to catch your eye.
What's not to love about this cake though? I think the ratio is about half sugar/half other ingredients. And that sugar comes in the form of Golden Syrup. Yes. Golden Syrup. 425g of it. I thought at first it was a typo. Don't panic though. Press on and include it and you will be rewarded with a cake that has a remarkably balanced set of flavours. The sweetness of the sugar is balanced with the spicy tang of the other ingredients. It makes up into a beautiful caramelised, treacly, moist cake. The other flavours are the ginger, cinnamon and citrus tang. The cake includes orange marmalade in the batter and then lemon syrup drizzled over it on completion.
I might not buy this at a school fete...but....that would be my loss entirely.
