Makes
1 kg loaf tin
Ingredients
1 Whisky Mac (25ml blended scotch whisky, 50ml ginger wine)
2 Apples
2 Eggs
160g Caster Sugar
120g/130ml Vegetable Oil
150g Plain Flour
1½ tsp Baking Powder
1½ tsp Ground Ginger
40g dark chocolate (70%+)
A handful of Crystallised Ginger
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C / 160°C fan / gas mark 4.
Grease a 1kg loaf tin and line with baking parchment – ensuring there’s enough to to pull the cake out with once it’s cooked. You can just line the long edges and base (saving paper and forgoing the pain of folding in the ends.)
Cut the apples into small chunks (around ¼ inch cubes – about the size of a standard dice) and place in a large mixing bowl with the whisky mac. Give the chunks a stir to ensure they all get a bit of a taste of alcohol. Don’t bother pealing the apples but do remove any visible blemishes as these will show in the finished cake.
In a large bowl, or using a mixer, whisk the egg and sugar until they start to puff up and go pale, before slowly pouring in the oil until it has all been incorporated. Be careful not to add the oil too fast or the mixture may split.
Using a spatula (or mixer beater attachment) fold in the flour, ginger, and baking powder into the mix until you achieve a smooth consistency. Then fold in the apple / cocktail mix.
Chop the chocolate into flecks and fold these and the crystallised ginger into the mix.
Pour the batter mix into the cake tin and bake for 35 minutes. Turn the tin around and bake for a further 15-20 minutes.
When done it should be springy to the touch and a knife should come out ‘just’ clean. If it’s taking its time cooking to the middle – lower the oven temperature and insert metal skewers (or all metal cutlery knives) through the centre of the cake until done.
Allow to cool in the tin for 15 to 20 minutes, if you have left the short ends of the loaf tin unlined, run a knife between the tin and the cake before releasing.
This cake can be eaten warm or cold, and will stand being frozen.
Backstory
Did you know I (re)started this blog as a bit of a cookery blog? Well I did! Right back in 2011 when I went away to university and wanted to chart my cookery progress, setting out into the kitchen for the first time armed only with half a copy of Delia's complete cookery course and a set of knives so blunt you could ride to London on them and not cut your arse. I probably wouldn't bother with those proto-recipes now, but I have a few which I've developed over the years which I might feed in, with some thoughts, from time to time.
This recipe is inspired by one from The Baking Book by Sarit Packer & Itamar Srulovich from Honey & Co (Saltyard books), which I heard on Simon Mayo's Radio 2 drivetime show. I much prefer ginger to nutmeg and my mum suggested that a whisky mac might make quite a good base for a ginger based cake. After some trial and error, here's the result!
