To celebrate the end of the school year, I made a ginger cake from a recipe given to me by one of my neighbours. It’s her Mum’s recipe (thanks Deirdre’s Mum!) and we have made it a few times. It has always been a resounding success and we’ve found this to be one of the nicest cakes we have ever made – delicious and gingery and moist.

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My youngest daughter suggested we use lemon icing one of the times we made it and so we tried it and I have to say it made the cake even better. So here’s the recipe for the traditional Irish ginger cake with a modern twist!

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Irish Ginger Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

• 3 cups plain flour
• 3 teaspoons ground ginger
• Pinch of salt
• 2 teaspoons mixed spice
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup lukewarm water
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 1 cup golden syrup
• 1 teaspoon baking/bread soda dissolved in 1/4 cup warm water
• 1 lemon
• Approx 200-225g icing sugar

Method:

1. Put all the ingredients into a big mixing bowl in the order given.
2. Beat for 2-3 minutes medium speed.
3. Line 2 loaf tins or 1 cake tin and fill with mixture up to 3/4 full.
4. Bake at 180C / 350 F for 50-60 mins. Leave to cool on a cooling rack.
5. Sieve the icing sugar and then squeeze in 1/2 the lemon’s juice, mix and then squeeze some more from the 2nd half.
6. If you need a bit more liquid add a few drops of water until you get a nice thick but runny consistency.
7. Drizzle the icing over the top of the cake.

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