Ginger and date cake with ginger cream

Serves eight to 10 Ingredients: For the cake:

200g dates, roughly chopped 350ml boiling water 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 50g fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated 120g butter, softened 240g golden caster sugar 3 large eggs ½ tsp salt 280g self-raising flour

For the cream:

200ml double cream 10g granulated sugar 100g chopped stem ginger

For decorating:

stem ginger, very thinly sliced into matchsticks

Method:

Preheat the oven to 170 and grease and line a 20cm square cake tin.

In a glass bowl, pour in the 350ml of boiling water, add the chopped dates along with the bicarbonate of soda. Stir and leave to cool down to room temperature. Once it has cooled, add the grated fresh ginger and using a handheld blender, blitz until the mixture still has a bit of a chunky texture.

In a food processor, cream the softened butter with the golden caster sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Gradually, add the eggs one at a time along with a tablespoon of the selfraising flour, this prevents the mixture from curdling.

Once all the eggs have been mixed, add the salt and the remaining selfraising flour and fold into the mixture. Pour the date and ginger mixture into the cake batter and gently fold until it is evenly distributed.

Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake in the preheated oven for 50-60 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when pricked in the centre of the cake.

Leave aside to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before placing on a wire rack to cool completely.

Meanwhile, whisk the double cream with the granulated sugar until it forms soft peaks. Carefully fold in the chopped stem ginger. Do this just before serving.

Slice the cake and spread some of ginger cream over it, decorate with a few thinly sliced matchsticks of stem ginger, and serve.