If gingercake were transformed into brownie, it would be something like this vegan sticky gingercake with dates: dense, with intense ginger and spice flavours and a crispy, chewy top.
This recipe follows the familiar and very easy vegan baking method of mixing up the wet ingredients and stirring them into the dry ingredients, which makes it fairly foolproof.
For a sweet cake, it’s full of wholesome ingredients. Much of the sweetness is from molasses and dates and the flour mix is 50% wholemeal. There are also copious amounts of healthy spices in the form of ginger, cinnamon, allspice and cloves, and ground almonds for texture.
Like other gingercakes, this stores well in an airtight container. It will firm up a little bit over time, but you might decide that, like parkin, it’s better that way.
sticky gingercake with dates…
ingredients
- 75 ml molasses
- 75 ml golden syrup
- 75 ml light olive (or other mild-tasting) oil
- 50 g light muscovado or other brown sugar
- 100 ml oat or other non-dairy milk
- 100 g dates, chopped
- 70 g ground almonds
- 110 g plain white flour
- 110 g plain wholemeal flour
- scant half teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground allspice
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
method
- Set the oven to 180°C/360°F. Lightly oil and line the base of a baking tin (the pictured cake was baked in a 9″ square tin).
- Measure the molasses and syrup into a microwaveable bowl or jug.
- Add the oil and sugar, and warm in the microwave briefly until the syrup and molasses are quite runny.
- Whisk the milk into the melted syrup mixture to form a dark glossy liquid.
- In a separate, large bowl, measure the flours and add the baking soda and spices. Mix thoroughly to ensure there are no little clumps of baking soda or spice.
- Stir the chopped dates and ground almonds into the flour until evenly distributed.
- Pour in the liquid mixture, stirring as you go, until everything is combined.
- Transfer to the tin, and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until it is well risen and firm in the centre but not yet darkening at the edges.
- Allow to cool before turning out and cutting into squares or triangles.
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