The original pound cakes were so called because they contained a pound each of flour, sugar, butter and eggs. It was made popular in the 18th century, as it was an easy recipe to remember (especially useful for poorer people who were unable to read). Nowadays the pound cake has evolved slightly, but providing you use equal amounts of the main ingredients, it can still be called a pound cake.
This cake has a warming ginger flavour but I’ve added lime zest and a lime icing to lift it away from the classic Christmas ginger flavour which we have all had so much of in the last few weeks. I’ve also given it a good soak in a ginger flavoured rum we have at home to make it extra moist and tasty. I’m aware ginger flavoured rum isn’t something that is in everyone’s cupboard so a standard rum will also do the trick or just add more of the syrup from the stem ginger jar.
Ginger and Lime pound cake
- 150g unsalted butter, softened
- 150g soft dark brown sugar
- 150g self raising flour
- 3 eggs
- 1 tbsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp baking powder
- the zest of 2 limes
Preheat the oven to 160°C (fan oven). Grease a 2 lb loaf tin with butter and line the base with baking paper.
Sift the flour, baking powder and ground ginger in to a bowl. In a separate bowl, beat together the butter and the sugar until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix until fully incorporated (add a spoonful of the flour mixture with each egg to stop the mixture curdling). Then finally fold in the flour mix and the lime zest until the mixture is smooth. Pour the batter in to the prepared tin. Bake in the oven for approx 40 minutes.
Rum syrup
- 50g caster sugar
- 75ml of water
- 1 bulb of stem ginger
- 1 tsp of syrup from the stem ginger jar
- 25ml of rum
Make the syrup whilst the cake is baking. Dice the stem ginger in to small pieces. Pop in a saucepan with the syrup from the jar and the sugar and the water. Heat slowly until the sugar is all dissolved and then bring to the boil. Take off the heat once the syrup is boiling and then add the rum. Leave in the saucepan to cool until needed.
Remove the cake from the oven when it is risen and a skewer comes out clean. Remove from the tin and place on a wire rack (it’s handy to have some foil underneath the rack to catch any drips from the syrup). Using a skewer or a cake tester, make a few small holes all over the top of the cake to help the syrup through. Take a pastry brush and brush the syrup all over the top of the cake. Leave the pieces of stem ginger in the saucepan for now (for decoration). Use all of the syrup – it can take a while but will be worth it in the end!
Once all the syrup has been brushed on to the cake, leave to cool.
Lime Icing
- 75g icing sugar
- 1 tbsp lime juice
- 1-2 tsp of water
- zest of 1 lime
Sift the icing sugar in to a bowl. Add the lime juice and half of the zest and whisk together. At this point, add a teaspoon of water and whisk. You can add more water if you want a runnier consistency, but I found this runny enough.
If the cake is cool, leave over the wire rack and spoon over the icing, allowing it to drip down the sides. Finish by sprinkling the remaining lime zest and the ginger stem (from the syrup) over the top. Transfer to a serving plate.
