No 19 - Squidgy Lemon and Ginger Cake

Squidgy Lemon and Ginger Cake

Another cake I first enjoyed after a session of yacht racing – thanks again to Sarah G.

The recipe is on the internet at http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1711/squidgy-lemonginger-cake and it has everything going for it:

1 – it’s a fabulous tasting cake

2 – it’s moist and keeps well

3 – it’s easy (no ‘cream the butter and sugar’ stuff)

Years ago I spent a summer sailing in the Baltic.  In a Polish port I meta very interesting Finn who’d been sailing to Polish ports for decades; since well before the end of the Communist era there.  This gentleman worked for a famous Finnish telephone manufacturer and entertained us for hours with takes of his travels about the world marketing their technology. 

At some stage the conversation came around, as it often does amongst long-distance sailors, to electronic equipment on board.  The environment, as salt laden as it is, is not conducive to the endless reliable operation of things we have come to rely on. I will never forget our hosts expression for giving up on something that has broken down one time too many: “paint it green and throw it overboard”.

My family’s response to ‘failed’ cakes might be similarly characterised as “cover it in custard and call it pudding”. 

Such was the fate of this fabulous cake the first time I made it for them.  I had probably greased the tin with oil with the result that at least 1/3 of the cake remained firmly attached when I tried to turn it out.  (In my experience nothing greases a cake tin like butter, but then I am Kiwi and we are famous for our association with the stuff.)  Anyway the texture of the cake meant it would rather let go of itself than the walls of the tin.

It got covered in custard and called pudding; so successfully in fact that my family now regard this only as a pudding.

So the lessons are: 1. Grease the tin with butter, 2. Use a spring-form tin, and 3. If all else fails cover it in custard and call it pudding.