Sticky, moist and full of spices – who would guess this cake is the result of a raggle taggle band of leftovers? Once upon a time it was the norm to use what was available…My grandmother would exclaim “wasting food is the work of the devil” and that war generation never could understand anything other than an empty plate at dinner. Fast forward to our ludicrously imbalanced society where we are plagued by food waste. They say charity begins at home so….
Not only does this cake use up whatever is lurking at the back of your cupboards, it really involves no method other than mixing the ingredients together.
Ingredients
makes 4 x small tins or 2 x 23cm circular, or 2 x brownie tins
225ml sunflower oil
100ml yoghurt or “lapte batut”
400ml pureed leftover marmalade
200ml treacle or I used leftover slightly crystallized date syrup
2 eggs
400g flour (I used 100g wholemeal and 300g white)
100g of crystallised ginger (blended to give smallish pieces)
2tsp bicarbonate of soda
2tsp baking powder
6tsp powdered ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
3tsp cinnamon
How To
Blend the marmalade particularly if your chunks are on the haphazard side – like mine. The resulting gloop will be opaque and rather creamy.
If you are patient chop the crystallised ginger finely – I blend it
Measure the marmalade gloop, the oil, the yoghurt and the syrup (a neat trick is to measure the oil first and then nothing sticks as you measure the subsequent ingredients) and pour into a mixing bowl
Add the eggs and the spices
Add the flour
Finally add the bicarbonate and the baking powder. Due to the yoghurt and the citrus in the marmalade the mixture does puff up in a slightly “honeycomb” fashion so its quite important to spoon it into prepared tins fastish. Fill the tins 2/3 full.
Bake gently at 160C until a toothpick inserted in comes out clean. This is a cake better eaten two days later when it is a little bit sticky.