The summer holidays are over:  hurrah!  Get those children back to school and out of their extra holiday classes.  Let’s delight for a moment in the illusion that life will be peaceful now that autumn is here, and celebrate with a pleasant autumnal cake.  My dad really loved ginger cakes, so my mum used to make them frequently – a black, sticky loaf that was sealed away for a few agonising days before it could be eaten.  Unfortunately when my mum moved house, she threw away the book containing the recipe and I will forever be trying to find its equal.  This is a very different version of ginger cake:  it’s light, nutty, delicious and absolute bliss to devour.

Sticky Ginger Loaf

Ingredients:

200g ginger marmalade

175g unsalted butter, softened

175g light brown muscovado sugar

3 eggs

225g self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp mixed spice

3 tsp ground ginger

75g walnut halves

Method:

1.  Butter and line a loaf tin and preheat the oven to 180C.

2.  Put all the ingredients except for the walnuts in a large bowl and beat together – using an electric whisk makes this considerably easier.

3.  Fold in the walnuts – if you mix them with a pinch of flour first it should stop them sinking to the bottom of the cake as mine did.

4.  Pour into the tin and level the top – it does rise a lot, so don’t overfill it.  (I had enough batter left over for a couple of muffins too – bake them for 15-20 minutes.)

5.  Bake for about 1 hour – cover with tin foil about half way through if it starts to blacken on top.

6.  Stand on a wire rack for about 10 minutes, then gently turn out and leave to cool completely.