Ginger Bundt Cake
This perfectly gingery cake is a favourite in my household. Feel free to play around with your spices – you might like to add a sprinkle of cardamom or, if you like a stronger kick, try using a little extra ginger.
Ingredients
3 eggs
120g butter, cubed
190g (3/4 cup) buttermilk (see Tips)
2 tsp natural vanilla extract
2-3cm piece fresh ginger, peeled, finely grated (note: no need to grate for Thermomix version)
2 tbsp lemon juice
120g (1 cup) almond meal (ground almonds) (note: use whole almonds for Thermomix version – raw or dry roasted)
100g (1/2 cup) preferred brown sugar (see Tips)
200g (1 1/4 cups) spelt flour (see Tips)
1 tbsp ground ginger
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Method
1. Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan). Grease a bundt tin or fluted ring cake tin (20cm) and set aside.
2. Gently melt butter. In a large bowl, whisk together melted butter, eggs, buttermilk, vanilla, fresh ginger and lemon juice until well combined.
3. Add almond meal and sugar. Sift in flour, ground ginger, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda, and mix until combined.
4. Transfer mixture into prepared tin and smooth surface. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Allow cake to cool in tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before serving.
Tips
- The slight acidity of the buttermilk reacts with the alkaline in the bicarbonate of soda to give the cake extra lightness. If you don’t have buttermilk on hand, you can create a substitute by adding 3 teaspoons lemon juice per 250ml of milk (so, for this recipe, this approximates to 180ml milk with 2 teaspoons lemon juice to give you 190g buttermilk substitute).
- Use your preferred brown sugar in this cake, either regular brown sugar or a less refined option such as rapadura sugar (panela) or coconut sugar. (Note that the weights of these sugars can vary, so the gram measurement will be more accurate than the cup measurement).
- The spelt flour can be substituted with regular plain flour if you prefer.
Variation
Thermomix method
- Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan). Grease a bundt tin or fluted ring cake tin (20 cm) and set aside.
- Place almonds and fresh ginger into mixing bowl and chop 10 sec/speed 7 or until finely chopped. Transfer into a bowl and set aside.
- Without cleaning mixing bowl, place butter into mixing bowl and melt 2 min/90°C/speed 1.
- Add all remaining ingredients, including reserved almond mixture, and mix 6 sec/speed 4.
- Scrape down sides of mixing bowl with spatula and mix 4 sec/speed 3, until combined.
- Transfer mixture into prepared tin, smooth surface and bake for 30–35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Allow cake to cool in tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before serving.
