In my pantry I found a jar of marmalade that was past it’s use-by date. A little darker but still OK, so I decided to try this Bon Appétit recipe, slightly adapted. It’s not too sweet with a bitter orange flavour, moist raisins and satisfying chunks of ginger.
Preheat your oven to 160ºC (320°F). grease a square cake tin and line the bottom with baking paper. In a stand mixer or with an electric mixer, beat ½ a cup of softened butter until creamy then beat in ¾ of a cup of molasses. Sift together 1⅔ cups of self-raising flour and 1½ teaspoons of powdered ginger. Add the flour to the butter in 3 additions, each time with 1 large egg. Mix through 1 cup of orange marmalade then fold in ½ a cup of chopped crystallised ginger and ½ a cup of raisins. Transfer the mix to the cake tin, smoothing out the top. Bake for 40 – 50 minutes until a toothpick or skewer inserted into centre comes out clean. Cool the cake in the tin. Cut into squares or rectangles to serve.
michelle picker cooks 