Ingredients

For the sponge:

250g cooking margarine 

250g light muscovado sugar

250g treacle

250g golden syrup

500g self-raising flour

4 tsp Ground Ginger

3 balls of stem ginger (in syrup), finely diced

3 eggs

350ml whole milk

 

For the buttercream:

2 egg whites

150g caster sugar

200g butter, cubed at room temperature

3 tbsp ginger syrup, from the stem ginger jar

Zest of 1 lemon

 

For the Sponge:

1. Preheat your oven to 160C/150C Fan and grease and line three 8″ Round Baking Tins.

2. Add the butter, sugar, golden syrup, and treacle to a large pan and gently heat, stir until the mixture has melted. Leave to cool for 5-10 mins.

3. Add the flour into a large bowl, add the ground and stem ginger, then pour in the cooled, melted sugar-butter mixture, and mix together until smooth. Add in the eggs, and milk and mix again till smooth. 

4. Split the mixture between the three tins, and bake in the oven for30-35 minutes, check with a skewer, which should come out clean, leave the cakes in the tin for 15 mins, and then turn out to cool fully on a wire rack.

 

For the Buttercream:

1. Add the egg whites and sugar to a heatproof bowl (I use the bowl from my stand mixer). Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water without the bowl touching the water. Whisk gently but continuously, until the mix feels warm and the sugar is completely dissolved, if rubbed between your fingers it should feel completely smooth.

2. Add the bowl back onto the stand mixer and whisk the egg mixture on high until completely cool, it usually takes 15-20 minutes.

3. Once cool, start adding the butter gradually, it won’t look much like buttercream until most of the butter has been added.

4. Finally, add the stem ginger syrup & the lemon zest.

 

To Decorate:

Secure your first layer with a little buttercream, then pipe blobs of icing around the cake tier from the outside into the centre. Gently add the second cake tier and repeat, you can also add some crushed gingerbread biscuits between the layers is you like. Add the third ad final layer, decorate with swirls of buttercream around the top edge, add a gingerbread biscuit (i prefer homemade) to each swirl and I also like to add gingerbread men sprinkles.