Ginger Salt Water Taffy.......Cake or Pudding?.......You Decide!

This heavenly concoction is a meeting of my favorite dessert... 'sticky toffee pudding' and that afternoon tea cake......ginger cake. 

You can enjoy this recipe as an afternoon tea treat or have as a dessert.....serve warm with lashings of whipped cream or a big scoop of vanilla ice cream dolloped on top and watch it melt into the salty toffee sauce.....to die for!

Some sticky toffee pudding recipes use dates for adding richness, moisture and 'stickiness' to the sponge...... but I have found that prunes (tinned in their own juice, not a sugar syrup) do the job just as well.....and it cuts down on the cost, prunes are way cheaper than decent dates!

When getting ready to bake have your ingredients at room temperature, especially the eggs.....adding very cold eggs can cause curdling of the mixture, having them at room temperature lessens the chance of that happening.

You can bake this in a loaf or round cake tin as I have done, or you can even make muffins or cupcakes from the mixture........you will get approx 16 - 18 cup cake from this. 

As always I advise the use of an electric mixer unless you have strong arms for all the mixing required.
If you don't like the idea of the ginger 'bits' through the sponge you can always leave them out, but add an extra teaspoon of ground ginger to keep it tasty!

For the sponge.......

75 g unsalted butter

250 g dark soft brown sugar

2 medium eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract/essence

250 g drained prunes.....reserve the juice!                                       

350 mls liquid....use the prune juice and top up with cold water

75 g stem ginger or crystallized ginger

325 g self raising flour

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon allspice
1 level teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

How to:

• butter a non stick 7 inch cake tin or 1 lb loaf tin, or place your paper cups in patty tins
• sieve the flour and ground spices and set aside
• chop the ginger quite fine and place in a saucepan, add the prune juice and water and bring to the boil and simmer very gently for 5 minutes, turn the heat off
• remove any stones from the prunes and add to the ginger water, leave them to steep while you prepare the sponge base
• cream the butter and sugar until very soft
• beat the eggs with the vanilla extract, slowly add to the butter & sugar, mixing on medium speed
• slowly add the flour and spices a tablespoon at a time, continue mixing on medium speed........do stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of your bowl now and then to help get everything incorporated
• once all the flour is added it is time for the prune liquid which will have cooled a little
• add the teaspoon of bicarb to the prune liquid and stir in, it will begin to fizz
• add the liquid mixture slowly to your sponge base, continue to mix on a slow speed to avoid splashes
• the sponge will have now turned to a batter consistency, give one last scrape down of the sides of your bowl just to make sure everything is mixed in
• pour your batter into the cake tin, let it rest for 10 minutes before placing in the oven
• bake at 160 oC for approx 30 minutes....check after 20 minutes just in case
• test with a wooden cocktail stick to make sure the centre is cooked through
• remove from the oven and cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire cooling rack

For the taffy topping: 
I use condensed milk instead of cream as you normally would when making the sauce for a stick toffee pudding.....it speeds up the cooking time and gives a nice coating consistency. This recipe will give you a little more toffee than is needed for coating but you can store any excess in the fridge and it will keep for a month or so......heat the sauce and drizzle over some stewed apples and sertve with custard.....divine!

180 g soft brown sugar

100 g salted butter

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

250 mls condensed milk

a good heavy bottomed saucepan

• fill your kitchen sink with cold water just deep enough to come halfway up your saucepan
• in your saucepan, slowly heat, while continuously stirring, the brown sugar, butter and half the condensed milk over a gentle heat until smooth
• add the remaining condensed milk and raise the heat a little till it just begins to boil.....it's important that you keep stirring while heating to avoid it sticking to the bottom of your pot and possibly caramelizing or burning
• take off the heat and immediately place in the sink of cold water, this will stop it cooking any further
• add the salt and stir gently for few of minutes to help the taffy begin to cool and get thick.....we are treating it a bit like fudge now
• place your saucepan on a heatproof surface and allow to cool until it begins to almost set
• it is ready for use when you can still stir it, but it is thick enough that it won't run off the top of your cake!
• coat the top of your cake/buns and scatter some sea salt granules on top

If you like this recipe then please share with your friends....follow me on my social media sites where you can see more food pictures.....bon appetit!