It was the day before her name day, and I had the idea to make a cake, with ginger as she loves. I woke up, baked it, wrapped it, still warm (too warm), together with other edible goodies and was off to congratulate her. It was a surprise and she loved it, because she loves ginger, in all shapes and forms.

Ingredients

120 g butter
160 g honey
1 tbsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp coffee extract
160 g sour cream or crème fraiche
260 g flour
pinch of sea salt
1 tsp soda
1.5 tsp baking powder
5 cardamom pods, seeds crushed
3 eggs
50 g demerara sugar
90 g candied ginger, cut into pieces
90 g walnuts, roughly crushed

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 190°. Line a 12 x 25 cm baking pan with baking paper. Melt the butter with honey and let it cool. Add both extracts and sour cream.

In a bowl, add flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cardamom and mix. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs with sugar for 5-7 minutes until pale and thick. Sieve the flour into the eggs and mix until it is half way incorporated. Add butter mixture, ginger, and nuts and mix until fully incorporated, but do not over mix.

Fill the pan, spread evenly, and bake in the middle of the oven for 40-50 minutes until a wooden skewer inserted comes out clean. When done, remove and cool 30 minutes in the pan. Transfer to a cooling rack. Cool completely.

Honey and ginger cake with walnuts