Wednesday, 13 December 2017

Making Ginger Christmas Cake with Opies


It's Christmas! Time to get your apron on, your mixing bowls out and pre heating that oven as its time to bake to Christmas Cake!

But how about making a Christmas Cake with a little bit of a difference this year? Sound good?

Well I have an amazing recipe for Ginger Christmas Cake from Opies.


They have some wonderful ingredients perfect to add to a Christmas Cake recipe to spice it up this year and they sent me some of these to try.

I was sent some Stem Ginger in Syrup, Crystallised Stem Ginger, Cocktail Cherries and Pickled Walnuts.


I will definetly be using some of these to make some special Ginger Christmas Cake this year. 

Here is the recipe...

Ingredients:
75ml Ginger Wine plus extra for ‘feeding’
200g Opies Crystallised Stem Ginger roughly chopped
200g Currants
50g Opies Cocktail Cherries roughly chopped
200g Dark Muscovado Sugar
280g Opies Stem Ginger in Syrup
3 Medium Free Range Eggs
250g Self Raising Flour
1 tablespoon Ground Mixed Spice

For the Marzipan layer:
20g Reserved Stem Ginger Syrup
500g Marzipan

For the Royal Icing layer:
500g Icing Sugar
3 Egg Whites
Juice of ½ a Lemon

1 teaspoon Glycerine

You will need one 15cm/6inch cake tin, greased and lined on the bottom and insides with baking paper and wrapped in a couple of sheets of newspaper. Place a slim wad of newspaper on the shelf of your oven shelf to sit the cake on too to protect it whist baking.

1. The night before (or at least a couple of hours before – the longer ahead of time you do this, the better…) place the chopped stem ginger and currants and ginger wine into a bowl. Cover and allow to soak overnight.
2. The next day: Set the oven to 150C oven, 140C fan 
In a large bowl, place the softened unsalted butter and dark muscovado sugar. Cream together until light and fluffy.

3. Whisk the eggs together, and add to the creamed butter and sugar mixture a tablespoon at a time, beating well in between additions. 

4. Rinse the cherries in water – dry with kitchen paper and add to the weighed flour, this will stop them sinking to the bottom of the cake.

5. Pour 20g of the syrup from the Stem Ginger Jar and set to one side. (You will need this to spread over the cake after baking). Place the rest of the jar – syrup and Stem Ginger pieces into a food processor or blender and whizz until you have a puree. (It doesn’t have to be exceptionally smooth.)

6. Then gently fold in the flour and chopped cherries, the mixed spice, then the soaked fruit and Crystallised Stem Ginger and lastly the pureed stem ginger in syrup.

7. Scoop the mix into the prepared tin, smooth the surface and place on the newspaper in the preheated oven. Bake for 2 hours. 

8. Remove from oven and allow to cool in the tin for around 15 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

9. You can then ‘feed’ your cake with extra booze should you choose to. Create tiny holes in the top with a tooth-pick and weekly, drizzle a couple of tablespoons full of Ginger wine into the holes. Wrap between feeds and keep in a cool place.

10. Once ready to ice, with a pastry brush, brush a thin layer of the reserved ginger syrup over the cake. Fill any holes with little pieces of marzipan and then roll out the block of marzipan to ½ cm thick and lay over cake. Trim the edges and leave to set for a few hours or overnight.

11. To make your royal icing: place the icing sugar, the egg whites and glycerine into a large bowl and preferably with a stand mixer or electric hand whisk, whisk until stiff peaks form.

12. Place icing into a piping bag.

You can ice the cake however you like, It looks great to splodge the icing on to the marzipan layer in little piped peaks all over, but be creative! The icing will set hard, but not teeth crackingly hard – due to the addition of the glycerine in the mix. You can find this in the supermarkets cake and baking sections. It comes in a tiny little bottle. The icing will also help to keep the cake fresh and delicious until you decide to crack it open. What a joy!


Opies Stem Ginger in Syrup (350g £2.50) & Crystallised Ginger (200g £2.35) are both available from Tesco 
Opies Cocktail Cherries (225g from £1.49) are available from all major supermarkets.

Would you like to win a Christmas bundle of Opies Food? Includes Opies Stem Ginger in Syrup, Crystallised Ginger, Opies Cocktail Cherries and some pickled Walnuts. Enter on the Gleam app below to WIN!

Win a Selection of Opies Foods

97 comments:

  1. Mmm I love Opies cocktail cherries! Sounds lovely and looks delicious! Mmmm I could just eat a slice!

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  2. I'd love to may not have time before Christmas
    Ginger cake is my favourite

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  3. Yes. I'll give it a try.

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  4. More likely to pass recipe on to friends who enjoy baking.

    Rachel Craig

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  5. I would win 'best wife of the year' award if I managed to make this as my hubby absolutely LOVES ginger!

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  6. I'd love to make this but only OH & I like ginger and we could both do with losing a few pounds, so unfortunately............

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  7. It will definitely go into my recipe collection

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  8. I think my daughter and I might give it a go

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  9. i would love to have a bash at it

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  10. I would love to try it although we already have a recipe for Christmas cake this year so maybe next year.

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  11. I've already done my cake this year but I'll give it a whirl next

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  12. My mum LOVES ginger cake!

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  13. I would love to try the recipe but it will be next year.

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  14. I'll be trying chocolate guiness cake this year!

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  15. yeah i would love to have a go at it

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  16. I would love to give it ago for sure.

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  17. Margaret Clarkson
    I would try this recipe in the new year. It sounds delicious.

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  18. I would love to try this for next Christmas (though I would have a go before then!).

    Hazel Rea @beachrambler

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  19. Lovely recipe and i do make my own ginger cake. If i made this i would keep the marzipan and omit the royal icing which i'm not too keen on

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  20. I'd try the recipe definitely

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  21. Yes most definitely but with my friend’s help as she’s a great baker!

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  22. sounds like a recipe we could have a go at xx

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  23. Bit too late for this Christmas but may give it a go next year!

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  24. Cake's not just for Christmas, now I've seen it I will definitely be trying it out

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  25. Would love to , I've never made a Christmas cake before x

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  26. looks very inviting so would like to give it a go

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  27. No I'm useless at baking and I don't have an oven at the moment

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  28. As much as I would like to, I have very little time. My wife will though.

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  29. How much 'extra booze' is too much? :)

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  30. It looks lovely, but I tend to use the same Christmas cake recipe every year

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  31. Violet Perkins Phillippo3 January 2018 at 00:19

    I would love to try this recipe next year.

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  32. Sounds like a great recipe and would love to give it a go.

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  33. I won't, trying to cut down on sweet treats now, but I'll pass this on to my mum, she loves ginger.

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  34. yes it looks and sounds lovely, my kids would love it

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  35. yes I would love to try this recipie, I have always wanted to make my own christmas cake, thanks x

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  36. I'm not a big fan of christmas cake but I'll pass it on to my mum

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  37. I might but I do have a fruit cake recipe that I have baked many times and it usually turns out well!

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  38. I love ginger cake so will definitely have to give this a try!

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  39. I ended up buying my cake last Christmas but this would be a recipe to try this year

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  40. Not this year, but by next Christmas I shall have my new kitchen so hopefully yes, this year!

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  41. I'll have a go when I get a bit more time

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  42. I've saved this recipe so will definitely be making it for next Xmas

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  43. I just need an excuse to make this. Pity my family aren't cake eaters

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  44. I might give it a go in the future

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  45. Michelle Ferguson9 January 2018 at 19:06

    Looks lovely, would definitely try it

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  46. Love cooking and will definitely give the recipe a try. The cherries remind me of snowballs back in the 80s that dad made x

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  47. yes it sounds delicious, I love ginger cake

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  49. It sounds absolutely delicious, but I'd probably never get around to baking it.
    @jaizduck

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  50. YES WILL BE TRYING IT

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  51. Looks gorgeous, thanks for sharing, Hope to try!

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  52. I might make it for my sister's birthday. She loves ginger cake. Looks delicious.

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  53. This looks delicious. I'd like to say I would try and make it, but I really am lazy in the kitchen and rarely make things myself.

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  54. yes I would try with my husband

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  55. This looks a delicious cake, I think I will be trying it

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  56. I love ginger cake so will have to try this recipe, but without the icing as I'm not a fan.

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  57. Not sure. I like my current recipe. This would be nice for a change though

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  58. I'll need to up my skills first but this looks great so I would like to try :)

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  59. I would love to try this , looks amazing

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  60. unsure because family are funny about fruit cake

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  61. I could eat cocktail cherries straight from the jar they are so tasty!

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  62. It sounds like my kind of recipe but I'm not that great a baker so not sure I'll have the energy to try it!

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  63. Yes it sounds a nice recipe to try out on the family

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  64. I would love to give this recipe a try xx

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  65. If I win, you can just send the Ginger. I love ginger...and cherries...just send the ginger & cherries...and the...just send it all.

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  66. Yes sounds great I love trying new things xx

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  67. It sounds delicious and would like to try it

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  68. It looks beautiful and so yummy, almost to good to eat, you make it sound so easy xxx

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  69. Can't wait to make this this December!!

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