Cook's Alphabet 'G'

Cook's Alphabet 'G'

This is the seventh in my series of 28 postings going through the entire alphabet, as it relates to cooks and cooking. As you can see, today I'm dealing with the letter 'G'.


The letter 'G' is, of course the seventh letter in the alphabet, and today's recipe is for a classic cake that includes a spice beginning with the letter 'G', ginger:

Ginger Cake

360g plain flour
180g butter
90g brown sugar
360g black treacle
60g sultanas
120g mixed peel
60g preserved ginger, finely chopped
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp ground ginger
3 eggs
3 tbsp milk

Sift together the flour, salt, bicarbonate of soda and ground ginger into a bowl. Add the sultanas, mixed peel and preserved ginger and stir to combine. Meanwhile add the treacle, butter and sugar to a pan heat gently until the butter melts and the treacle becomes liquid. Beat together the eggs and milk, add to the treacle mix and take off the heat. Stir to combine then make a well in the flour and pour the treacle mix into this.

Beat thoroughly to combine then turn into a 18cm square cake tin that's been lightly greased and lined with greaseproof paper. Transfer to an oven pre-heated to 160°C and bake for 75 minutes, or until the top is coloured and the cake is firm to the touch. Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack and allow to cool completely. Store in an air-tight tin..

(This recipe reproduced, with permission, from the Celtnet Ginger Cake Recipe page. )



Today's cooking term is Gram Flour: Gram Flour is a traditional Indian flour made by grinding chickpeas to a flour. It is very fine and a pale yellow in colour and is a critical component in making samosas and bhajis.



For more information on cookery-associated terms and information beginning with the letter 'G' here are various links that may well be of interest:

Recipes beginning with 'G'
Spices beginning with 'G'
Herbs beginning with 'G'
Wild foods beginning with 'G'
Cook's glossary 'G'