Saturday 4 September 2010

Maple Syrup Gingerbread

As I brought two tins of maple syrup back from Canada, bought for a fraction of the cost of maple syrup in the supermarkets in the UK, it seemed an ideal opportunity to find a recipe which used maple syrup in large quantities. I finally settled on this Maple Syrup Gingerbread recipe, although I made a few adjustments to fit in with the ingredients I had available - butter instead of shortening, and Greek yogurt instead of sour cream. I also left out the candied peel altogether.

My usual gingerbread recipe is dark, dense and moist - the sort that keeps well and gets stickier with time. This cake is lighter in both colour and texture, but moist and fragrant with a variety of spices. I'm not sure the maple syrup makes much of an impact on the flavour, as there are so many spices, but as it's not as thick and sticky as golden syrup or treacle(molasses), I'm sure it contributes towards the lighter texture.

Unfortunately a large part of the cake was stuck in my ring tin after I turned it out. You can see in the photo that the back of the cake looks a bit lumpy and misshapen, where I tried to reassemble the pieces. Next time, and there will be a next time while I still have the Canadian maple syrup to use up, I will bake it in a square tin lined with parchment.

Apart from that it was a simple recipe to follow - beat eggs until light and fluffy, beat in sugar and wet ingredients, then beat in the flour sifted with the spices and raising agents.

I topped the cake with a simple glacé icing made from roughly 150g icing sugar mixed with alternating dessertspoons of maple syrup and water until the correct thickness was achieved.

Here are the ingredients converted to metric weights and measures:
2 eggs
250mls maple syrup
100g light muscovado sugar
250g natural Greek yogurt
115 melted butter
280g plain flour
1 teaspoon each of baking powder and bicarbonate of soda
1 tablespoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
goodly amount of freshly ground nutmeg (approx 1/2 teaspoon).

The cake had a really good moist, light texture and was strongly spiced. I found the amount of ground cloves used overwhelmed the other spices a little, so will cut that by half next time. This makes a really good alternative to the traditional dark sticky gingerbread.

6 comments:

Caroline said...

That looks really delicious - lovely and light and moist. I love gingerbread so I really must mark this one to try, when I can afford the maple syrup! It's a shame it didn't have as much of an impact flavourwise as you might have hoped.

I think that ground cloves must be the ingredient that the measurement 'a pinch of...' was invented for. However little you put in, you can always taste it!

Chele said...

Hubby loves gingerbread but I'm not a huge fan of the flavour. I'm thinking this version would maybe suit my palette a little bit more ... and still please Hubby!

Celia said...

Suelle, I've never made gingerbread before, but you've inspired me to try! This cake looks moist and rich! We're hooked on maple syrup - our boys go through it by the bucketload on pancakes, but it's not something I use often in cooking...hmmm...will need to investigate that further. :)

Joyti said...

Ooo, that sounds truly delicious. I would imagine even more moist than regular gingerbread.

Alicia Foodycat said...

I do love yoghurt cakes! This sounds wonderful.

Suelle said...

C - I think you're right - never more than a pinch of ground cloves, except in a curry!

Chele - think of it as a spice cake!

Celia - you might need to reduce the spices a little, if your boys aren't used to a lot - especially the cloves!

Indie.Tea - nicely moist, but lighter than my regular gingerbread.

Foodycat - there wasn't really any evidence of yogurt in the flavour of this cake, and it was also lighter than most cakes I've made using yogurt.