insideKENT Magazine Issue 45 - December 2015 | Page 78

FOOD+DRINK

A Decadent Christmas
Recipes from Opies
Ginger Christmas Cake
Developed by former Great British Bake Off contestant Kate Henry, 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!

Ingredients:

Method

• 75ml ginger wine plus extra for ‘feeding’
• 200g Opies Crystallised Stem Ginger roughly
chopped
• 200g currants
• 50g Opies Cocktail Cherries roughly chopped
• 200g dark muscovado sugar
• 280g Opies Stem Ginger in Syrup
• 3 medium free range eggs
• 250g self raising flour
• 1 tablespoon ground mixed spice

1 The night before (or at least a couple of hours
before – the longer ahead of time you do this,
the better…) place the chopped stem ginger
and currants and ginger wine into a bowl.
Cover and allow to soak overnight.
2 The next day: Set the oven to 150°C oven,
140°C fan
3 In a large bowl, place the softened unsalted
butter and dark muscovado sugar. Cream
together until light and fluffy.
4 Whisk the eggs together, and add to the
creamed butter and sugar mixture a tablespoon
at a time, beating well in between additions.
5 Rinse the cherries in water – dry with kitchen
paper and add to the weighed flour, this will
stop them sinking to the bottom of the cake.
6 Pour 20g of the syrup from the Stem Ginger
Jar and set to one side (you will need this to
spread over the cake after baking). Place the
rest of the jar – syrup and Stem Ginger pieces
into a food processor or blender and whizz
until you have a purée (it doesn’t have to be
exceptionally smooth).
7 Then gently fold in the flour and chopped
cherries, the mixed spice, then the soaked fruit
and Crystallised Stem Ginger and lastly the
puréed stem ginger in syrup.
8 Scoop the mix into the prepared tin, smooth
the surface and place on the newspaper in the
preheated oven. Bake for 2 hours.
9 Remove from oven and allow to cool in the tin
for around 15 minutes, then turn out onto a
cooling rack to cool completely.

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
You will need one 15cm (6inch) cake tin, greased
and lined on the bottom and insides with baking
paper and wrapped in a couple of sheets of
newspaper. Place a slim wad of newspaper on
the shelf of your oven shelf to sit the cake on too
to protect it whist baking.

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10 You can then ‘feed’ your cake with extra
booze should you choose to. Create tiny
holes in the top with a toothpick and weekly,
drizzle a couple of tablespoons full of Ginger
wine into the holes. Wrap between feeds and
keep in a cool place.
11 Once ready to ice, with a pastry brush, brush
a thin layer of the reserved ginger syrup over
the cake. Fill any holes with little pieces of
marzipan and then roll out the block of
marzipan to ? cm thick and lay over cake.
Trim the edges and leave to set for a few
hours or overnig