Christmas Loaves for Ginger Lovers

• Juice & zest of 1 lemon (or orange)
• 300g grated fresh pears – toss with the juice and zest to prevent browning. Your fruit should be cleaned but not peeled. May be substituted with apples, or carrots, or courgettes.
• 500g roughly chopped dates
• 300g roughly chopped glace ginger (naked ginger or crystallised ginger also work, and if you think there’s too much ginger in this, it can be substituted with dried pineapple – see alternative recipe on our website)
• 250g butter
• 250g raw sugar
• 1 tbsp blackstrap molasses (golden syrup or treacle will do)
• 3 tbsp Hakanoa Spicy Chai concentrate (can be substituted with ANY Hakanoa syrup – Golden Latte is my next favourite, but they all work.
• 150ml Whiskey (or rum, or Madeira or dry sherry, or strong black tea)
• 150 grams roughly chopped walnuts
• Add 1 tbsp cornflour, stir well, then pour the mixture into a large mixing bowl to cool.
• 4 eggs – beaten together
• 250g plain flour, sifted with;
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp baking soda

1. Pre-heat the oven to 135c on fan bake.
2. Line 2 loaf pans with double layers of baking paper, with at least 20cm of paper hanging over the long sides of the pans,
3. Heat the first 7 ingredients in a large saucepan, stirring gently and often. When it starts to simmer, then add
4. The Whiskey (or rum, or Madeira or dry sherry, or strong black tea) and the roughly chopped walnuts and continue stirring at a gentle simmer for 10 minutes.
5. Add 1 tbsp cornflour, stir well, then pour the mixture into a large mixing bowl to cool.
6. Add 1/3 of the sifted flour mixture to the bowl and stir well until blended in, then add half the beaten eggs and stir well, then another 1/3 of the flour, stirring well, then the eggs, then the last of the flour, making sure each round is well stirred in before adding the next.
7. Divide the mixture evenly between the pans, to about 3/4 deep.
8. Get the 2 sides of the paper, put a narrow fold at the meeting edge, and tuck the edges loosely into into the tin.
9. Put the loaf tins on a baking tray, and put in the oven, Bake for 10 mins, then turn the heat down to 110C.
10. Bake for a further 2.5 hours. Test with a skewer, checking if it comes out of the cake clean, to make sure the cakes are cooked.
11. Cool in the pans for 10 mins, then turn out onto a rack to cool. Leave the paper on them. Store in airtight container.

Now, you can bake the cake in one big pan, but it’s so good that I struggle to keep the cake untouched until Christmas.So I make it in 2 loaf pans. That’s one we can eat now and one wrapped up ready and waiting for the festive season.

I line the pans with 2 layers of baking paper with a lot of overhang that I can fold and tuck over the pans once filled. This creates a little steam around the cakes and stops them from drying out.

I usually make up a couple of muffin cups with deep lining too, so we can eat them like tiny steamed puddings after dinner. The whole place smells like christmas for hours when these are baking, so we can’t wait to try them out!