Spiced ginger cake with orange blossom mascarpone icing.

This post has been pleasantly sponsored by Breville and the fantastic Breville HeatSoft™ hand mixer.

There is no better time than Christmas to indulge and there is little in life that beats a good slice of home baked cake after a frosty walk. I love a ginger cake especially when paired with a zippy cream cheese icing and this is one of my favourite cakes to enjoy during the festive season. Switch up the ratios of the ground spices depending on your taste, but a must is the finely grated ginger as this brings a wonderful zing to the flavour. You will need soft butter for this cake to reach that perfectly pillowy icing. Recently I encountered a great discovery; the Breville HeatSoft™ hand mixer which has a remarkable and quite magical HeatSoft™ function with Softening Technology that warms the butter 12 times faster as it mixes meaning there is no need for super hero style organisation and leaving the butter out the night before. Even better news is that when the mood for cake strikes you can have fluffy cake right away.

For someone who is often faced with 10 over for supper last minute it’s been a godsend. I rather like that you can adjust the speed too (to seven different speeds in fact) as you can use if for things that require a slower steadier whisk such as a soft whipped double cream.

Ps. It has a rather super box that stores all the utensils that it comes with (whisks, dough hooks and beaters) as well as the cord. Genius if you are tight for space and incredibly useful when you’re looking for ‘that whisky bit you clip in.’

Ingredients

• 450g plain flour

• 3/4 tsp salt

• 3 tsp baking powder

• 3 tsp ground cinnamon

• 2 tsp ground ginger

• 1 tsp ground cardamom

• 1/4 of fresh grated nutmeg (or 1/4 tsp)

• 1 tsp mixed spice

• 250g butter, soft

• 100g dark brown muscovado sugar (any lumps pushed out using your fingers)

• 200g caster sugar

• 4 eggs

• 2 tsp vanilla

• 150g golden syrup

• 120g black treacle

• Thumb sized piece of ginger, finely grated

• 100ml whole milk

For the icing 

• 125g butter

• 90g cream cheese

• 125g mascarpone

• 450g icing sugar

• 1tsp orange extract  

Method

• Preheat your oven to 180° fan setting. Grease the sides and line the base of three 9inch cake tins with baking parchment.

• In a medium sized bowl whisk together your flour, salt, baking powder and spices.

• In a large mixing bowl using your Breville HeatSoft™ hand mixer beat the butter to soften then add the sugars and beat until light and fluffy, scraping down the bowl and necessary.

• Add the eggs two at a time and beat till just incorporated.

• Add the vanilla, golden syrup, black treacle and ginger and beat again until you have a smooth glossy mix.

• Add a third of your flour mix and mix followed by a third of the milk. Mix. Then repeat this stage twice more until everything is incorporated.

• Divide your batter evenly between your tins and bake for 25 minutes.

• Allow the cakes to cool in the tins for ten minutes before turning them out onto a wire rack and allowing them to cool completely.

• To make the icing place your butter in a clean mixing bowl and beat using the your hand mixer until light and fluffy.

• Add the cream cheese and mix using a spatula until creamy.

• Then add the mascarpone and mix again.

• Add the orange extract and a third of your sifted icing sugar and mix. Repeat until you have incorporated it all.

• Level off your cakes using a bread knife and place one layer on a cake stand or plate.

• Making sure that you use a third of the icing for each layer (I sometimes weigh it out into three equal parts) ice the first layer then place the second cake on top and ice this.

• Invert the last cake for the final later so that you have a perfectly level surface. Top with holly or cinnamon sticks for a Christmassy finish.