FOOD + DRINK
AHEAD OF THYME CONT .
Ginger Christmas Cake
Recipe by : Opies www . opiesfoods . com
This is a wonderfully rich and decadent Christmas cake with a twist . Spiced with Opies Stem Ginger in Syrup and studded with Opies Crystallised Stem Ginger , this is joyfully gingery and has just the right amount of stickiness .
Prep time : 2 hours Cook time : 2 hours Serves : 12
Ingredients :
• 200g Opies Crystallised Stem Ginger , roughly chopped
• 50g Opies Cocktail Cherries , roughly chopped
• 280g Opies Stem Ginger in Syrup
• 200g currants
• 75ml ginger wine , plus extra for ‘ feeding ’
• 200g unsalted butter , softened
• 200g dark muscovado sugar
• 3 medium free-range eggs
• 250g self-raising flour
• 1 tbsp ground mixed spice
For the marzipan layer :
• 20g reserved Stem Ginger Syrup
• 500g marzipan
For the royal icing layer :
• 500g icing sugar
• 3 egg whites
• Juice of 1 / 2 a lemon
• 1 teaspoon glycerine
Method
1 . Place the Opies Crystallised Ginger , Opies Cocktail Cherries , currants and ginger wine into a bowl . Cover and soak for 2 hours ( ideally overnight ).
2 . Grease a 15cm cake tin and line with baking paper . Preheat oven to 150 ° C ( 140 ° C fan ).
3 . Pour 20g of the syrup from Opies Stem Ginger and set aside . Place the rest of the jar ( syrup and ginger pieces ) into a food processor and whizz to make a puree .
4 . In a large bowl , cream together the unsalted butter with the dark muscovado sugar until light and fluffy . Whisk the eggs together and add to the mixture a tablespoon at a time , beating well in between .
5 . Gently fold the flour , mixed spice , soaked fruit and pureed stem ginger into the butter and egg mixture . Scoop the mix into the prepared tin and smooth the surface . Wrap the tin in a couple of sheets of newspaper and place a slim wad of newspaper on the shelf of the oven shelf to sit the cake on . Bake for 2 hours .
6 . Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 15 minutes . Turn out onto a rack to cool completely .
To ice : 7 . Brush a thin layer of reserved ginger syrup over the cake . Roll out the marzipan to 1 / 2 cm thick and lay over the cake . Trim the edges and leave to set for a few hours .
8 . Place the icing sugar , egg whites , lemon juice and glycerine into a large bowl whisk until stiff peaks form . Cover the cake in icing ensuring it is spread evenly and use a palette knife to create some peaks .
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