July 11th, 2024
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Ginger is one of my favourite spices to use in winter cooking. It is warming from the inside out and features heavily in my kitchen through the cooler months. It is added to soups and stews, and a good hit of ginger goes into my morning mug of sunshine tea. A combination of fresh ginger, turmeric, lemon juice, honey, black pepper and salt. This is the best way to warm oneself before heading out into a cold morning. It’s not an exact recipe, a simple concoction that includes a bit of this and that. I shared the basic recipe (created for This NZ Life last winter), including a video of how to make it recently on Instagram or Facebook.
I am also a sucker for a good ginger slice and often add ginger – fresh and dried – to winter baking. The little cakes that follow are a blast from the past from when I worked in commercial kitchens in the 90s. Sticky date cake (or pudding) was often featured on the menus. From memory, these were an overly sweet teeth-tingling experience, so I have reduced the sugar in the cakes so the date and ginger can shine. Served alongside, a smooth tahini-spiked caramel sauce that ties this sweet treat together. Or, if preferred, skip the tahini and replace it with 2 tablespoons extra cream.
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More Sweet Winter Recipes on Homegrown Kitchen:
- Creamy Rice Pudding with Poached Pear (or Quince)
- Parsnip & Carrot Cake with Walnuts & Ginger
- Blackberry, Walnut & Meringue Pudding
- Banana & Sesame Loaf with Tahini Buttercream – another fab recipe using tahini.
Sticky Date & Ginger Cakes with Tahini Caramel Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 cup (160g) pitted dates, roughly chopped
- 1 cup (250ml) boiling water
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ cup (125ml) olive oil (or use melted butter or coconut oil)
- ¼ cup (50g) packed brown sugar
- 2 free-range eggs
- 2 tsp finely grated ginger root
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups (220g) plain flour (can use gluten-free)
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- pinch of salt
Tahini Caramel Sauce
- 50 g butter
- ½ cup (100g) packed brown sugar
- ⅓ cup (85ml) cream
- 2 tbsp tahini (or 2 tbsp extra cream)
- pinch of salt
- toasted sesame seeds for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C (fan 160C). Grease and line 12 medium muffin tin holes (or use a large loaf tin).
- Place the chopped dates, boiling water and baking soda into a heat-proof bowl and set aside to soak for 15-20 minutes.
- While the dates are soaking make the caramel sauce. Combine the butter, sugar and cream in a small saucepan. Bring to a gentle simmer over a low heat for 3 minutes. Remove from the heat, add the tahini (if using) and salt. Stir to combine. Set aside and continue with the cake batter.
- Place the dates and water into a food processor and blend into a rough paste. Add the oil/melted butter and sugar, and blend briefly to cool the date mixture. Then add the eggs, fresh ginger and vanilla, and blend again until smooth.
- Place the remaining dry ingredients - flour, spices, baking powder and salt - into a bowl. Whisk to combine then add to the processor, pulse 6-8 times until just combined. Scoop into the prepared muffin tin to ¾ fill each hole. Or pour into a greased and lined loaf tin.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes (or 40-45 minutes for a larger loaf) until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes then transfer the cakes to a cooling rack.
- The cakes are best served warm drizzled with the tahini caramel sauce - reheat as needed and pour into a jug. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and serve. Lightly whipped cream and yoghurt (2 parts cream to 1 part yoghurt ) is an agreeable accompaniment.
