honey, ginger and marmalade cake with a chocolate and yoghurt ganache

… getting back into the swing of things cake-wise can sometimes be a bit of a hit and miss affair I find.  We got back to the cottage last night after our Californian trip followed by a week of work madness in London.  It’s always such a relief to be back home although after more than a couple of weeks away from this place I always walk through the front door with a little dread on what i’ll find… it’s not that the cottage is particularly old or crumbling but we do live relatively in the middle of nowhere and small creatures tend to make the most of an empty house with a well-stocked baking cupboard.  Fortunately, as always, my fears were averted but I do feel I owe it to the general upkeep of the house to bake more cakes just to reduce the temptation for small mammals…

… I was inspired by my friend Janice and her Sausage Stuffed Croissant to use the last of the christmas stuff left in the fridge and larder so I deftly grabbed half a tub of crystallised ginger, some Fortnum and Mason thick cut marmalade and some Lincolnshire honey and used these as my inspiration for a cake… I also have quite a number of eggs that are about to climb out of their box and perspire so this cake is a perfect contribution to this months tea time treats hosted by Karen over at Lavender and Lovage and co-hosted this month by Jane at The Hedgecombers which has the thankfully broad theme of eggs…

honey, ginger and marmalade cake with a chocolate and yoghurt ganache
I wanted to do a trial run of my iheartcake silicone cake mould before Valentines Day as I remembered last year it wasn’t the easiest cake mould to use… I had a couple of attempts, both with burnt edges and I remember quite a few of my blogger friends having similar troubles… I think it’s the sheer size of the thing – it’s definitely a 4 egg cake mould but I also think that its clever design is also its downfall… saying all this, despite the cake being a little crisp around the edges it actually delivers beautifully…

for the cake
4 large free-range eggs
250g butter
200g golden caster sugar
200g plain flour
50g ground almonds
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons set honey
2 tablespoons marmalade
50g crystallised ginger

for the ganache
100g dark chocolate – i’m using Green and Blacks with ginger
100g TOTAL Greek Yoghurt
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon honey

pre-heat the oven to 170C and place the mould onto a baking tray (essential)

in a large bowl, cream the butter, sugar and honey until light and fluffy, then add two of the eggs and beat them in, followed by half the flour, baking powder and ground almonds.  Once these are beaten in add the other two eggs and beat them in followed by the remaining flour.

beat in the marmalade and ginger and then pour the batter into the mould

bake on 170C for 40 mins until golden and risen but be careful to check on it regularly for signs of burning – set aside to cool

gently melt the chocolate in a pan with the butter and honey, once melted add the yoghurt and stir together until it’s mixed in and nicely thick, then smear liberally onto the cake

I was recently asked by the good people at argos if i’d like to review one of their small domestic appliances… for anyone living under a rock for the past 3 decades argos is the UK’s leading on-line department store… it started life as a catalog store selling pretty much everything and it’s made a succsessful transition to the web where many of it’s high-street competitors failed… I chose an appliance i’ve had my eye on for quite some time, the Kenwood Kmix Hand Mixer… it’s a stylish, retro-inspired little gem of a mixer that comes with a double whisk and a double knead attachment.  I haven’t used the knead attachments yet and will report back when I do but the whisk is wonderful… it has 5 speeds and a pulse button… i’m sure 3 of these speeds are unnecessary but they’re there anyway.  It feels nicely powerful and quite sturdy which is just what you need in a handheld… it comes on a natty little display stand with holes for all the accesories but to be honest it gets stuffed in a cupboard anyway so i’m not so bothered… it made this cake and many others over christmas perfectly so all in all i’m very happy with it already feel it will become a new favourite…

eat and of course, enjoy!