Good Food Magazine's Iced Ginger Bundt Cake

The talented Kirsty from Bake This Happen (who also runs a fantastic baking blog, Ever So Sweet) has created a twist on a classic - here's her take on Good Food Magazine's Iced Ginger Bundt Cake!

What a treat when this months Christmas edition of BBC Good Food magazine landed on my door mat last week.  Now with bonfire night being past, the countdown to Christmas is truly on, and with it all the flavours of the festive season.  

Flicking through this issue there were many tempting recipes that I can’t wait to try - many ideas for alternative Christmas day sides, appetisers and edible gifts.  However, I am always tempted by sweet treats and desserts so it was quite the conundrum choosing between sticky toffee pear pudding, florentine biscuits and, the winner, Jamaican ginger beer and pineapple bundt cake.  

Typical of any food blogger, I couldn’t leave the recipe alone and baked my own version but I can’t wait to bake it again with the suggested pineapple.  Some ginger cakes are dense and dark in flavour, but this is light as a feather and with a softer flavour than usual.  The muscovado sugar helps to keep the cake moist and also adds a slight crunch to the crust which is an excellent contrast.  I’ve never used ginger beer in my ginger cakes before but I think this must help greatly with the spicy flavour and with the soft texture.

This cake couldn’t be easier to make as it’s a case of mixing the wet ingredients with the dry, stirring them up and baking.  If you don’t have a bundt tin a large traybake tin would also work well, just shorten the bake time to 30 minutes and keep an eye on it.

Ingredients

Cake:

• 225ml vegetable oil, plus extra for greasing
• 375g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 300g muscovado sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 ½ tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 300ml buttermilk
• 80ml milk
• 100ml ginger beer
• 3 large eggs

Icing:

• 125g icing sugar
• 2-4 tbsp water

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C, 160 degrees C fan.  
2. Grease a large bundt tin with a little oil and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, sugar, salt and spices.  If the sugar remains in clumps, use your fingers to break it up, but don’t worry too much.
4. In a large jug, whisk together the remaining ingredients.  
5. Pour the wet mixture into the dry and mix well until everything is combined.
6. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 1 hour, until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.  
7. Leave to cool in the tin for about 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
8. To make the icing, add the icing sugar to a bowl and slowly add the water until it reaches a thick yet easy to pour consistency.  Use a fork to drizzle over the cooled cake.

If you want to try your hand at a delicious, decadent dessert for Christmas, give a BBC Good Food magazine subscription a try (it makes a great gift, too)!

This is a guest post via the magazine.co.uk blogger network.