Sticky Ginger Loaf Cake

Ingredients

• 2 large eggs
• 250 g plain flour
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 30 g fresh root ginger, grated
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• 150 ml buttermilk
• 150 g light brown sugar
• 175 g unsalted butter, softened
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 75 g golden syrup
• 100 ml double cream
• 100 g dark muscovado sugar
• 25 g unsalted butter (for glaze)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
• 1 pinch fine salt
• Vanilla ice cream

Method

1. Heat the oven to 170°C fan (190°C conventional). Grease a 900g loaf tin and line with baking paper, leaving a generous overhang on the long sides; that's your handle for lifting the sticky cake out later.
2. Beat the softened butter and light brown sugar in a large bowl for 3–4 minutes until pale and fluffy. This is where the cake gets its lift, so don't rush it; you're whipping air into the fat. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each, then stir in the golden syrup and grated fresh ginger. The batter should look glossy and smell warmly fragrant.
3. Sift the flour, ground ginger, bicarbonate, cinnamon and the pinch of salt into a separate bowl. The salt is important here; it sharpens the ginger and stops the cake tasting one-note sweet. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet mix in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk, until you have a smooth, thick, ribbon-like batter.
4. If it reads flat, add another small pinch of salt before you tin it. Spoon into the prepared tin, smooth the top with the back of a spoon, and bake for 50–55 minutes. It's done when the top is deep bronze, the cake is springy in the centre, and a skewer comes out with a few moist crumbs clinging to it; fully clean means you've gone too far.
5. While the cake bakes, make the glaze. Tip the muscovado sugar, double cream and 25g butter into a small pan and warm over a medium-low heat, stirring, until the sugar dissolves and the sauce turns glossy and thick enough to coat the back of a spoon; about 3–4 minutes. Watch it: muscovado catches quickly at the edges and turns bitter. Stir in the vanilla if using.
6. As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, prick the top all over with a skewer, going right down to the base. Slowly pour over two-thirds of the hot glaze so it pools and sinks into every hole; hot cake, hot glaze, that's how it soaks rather than sits on top. Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 15 minutes, then lift out onto a wire rack using the paper overhang.
7. To serve: slice thickly once mostly cooled, lay a wedge on each plate, spoon the rewarmed remaining glaze over the top so it pools onto the plate, and finish with a thick pour of double cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream alongside.