One of my New Year’s resolutions is to become a better baker. How can I claim to be an accomplished cook if I don’t know how to knock out a decent loaf or a tasty cake?
My determination to seek baking nirvana grew stronger yesterday, after an attempt at ginger cake failed spectacularly.
I used the wrong sized tin and fell asleep, so what came out of the oven was a burnt mess with the texture of industrial sponge. It was irreclaimable and ended up in the bin.
It’s not that I can’t bake, I simply have a small repertoire of things that I do very well (roast bake, banana bread, black cake for example), and now it’s time to move beyond my baking comfort zone.
The source of my inspiration is The Guardian Guide to Baking, a small but quite comprehensive booklet that was recently published by the Guardian newspaper.
The guide’s main contributor is master baker Dan Lepard and there are also contributions from a host of ‘passionate home bakers and chefs’.
This isn’t just a collection of recipes as there are also articles about baking in general, so let’s say you wanted to build your own bread oven outdoors for just £500, you could follow the steps in Tom Jaine’s article.
There are some delicious looking recipes in this 98-page booklet including chewy light rye bread, brioche, quinoa hazelnut cake and guinea fowl pudding. But I wanted to try Ginger Cake - a Caribbean-styled cake that’s especially loved by my Jamaican friends.
Neneh Cherry and Andi Oliver who provided this recipe describe this cake as “dark, rich, sticky and lushly aromatic”.
They also said the cake was ‘very simple’, but as I discovered, you need to follow the recipe to the letter or it will flop! So I halved the recipe, carefully followed the instructions and I had a moist and sumptuous ginger cake. I knew it was really good because one-year-old Millie couldn’t stop eating it when I served it for dessert today.
So here’s Neneh and Andi’s recipe for ginger stout cake, as they’ve written it, with some additional notes based on my own experience of making this cake.

Neneh and Andi’s ginger stout cake

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.
2. Butter a 22×12 cm loaf pan (make sure to use this or a pan that’s close to it), line the base and sides with non-stick parchment. Alternatively, butter and flour a favourite cake tin.
3. In a large saucepan over a high heat, combine 230ml stout and the same of molasses and bring to the boil. (You do need a large saucepan, as it boils over the top of the pot quickly!)
4. Turn off the heat and add ½ tbsp baking soda. Allow to sit until the foam dissipates.
5. Meanwhile, in a bowl, whisk together 3 large eggs and 120 ml ach of granulates sugar and firmly packed dark brown sugar. Whisk in 180ml of grapeseed or vegetable oil.
6. In a separate bowl, whisk together 470ml plain flour, 2 tbsp ground ginger, 1½ tsp baking powder, ¾ tsp cinnamon, a few cloves, ¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg and 1/8 tsp ground cardamom.
7. Combine the stout mixture with the egg mixture, then whisk this liquid into the flour mixture, half at a time.
8. Add 1 tbsp peeled and grated fresh ginger root and stir to combine.
9. Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake for an hour (depending on the oven, 40 minutes might be enough) or until the top springs back when gently pressed. Do not open the oven until the cake is almost done or the centre may fall slightly.
10. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.