(350°F), Gas mark 4, and line the muffin tray with the paper cases.
Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and spice into a large bowl, then add the sugar and mix together. Add the butter and rub together with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk and golden syrup. Tip this into the flour mixture along with the chopped stem ginger and the sultanas, and beat until well mixed.
Divide the batter between the muffin cases, filling each about three-quarters full.
Bake the muffins for about 30 minutes or until well risen and springy to the touch. Allow the muffins to cool for about 5 minutes before removing them from the tin and placing on a wire rack to finish cooling.
Tip If you like, you could use some of the syrup from the stem-ginger jar to brush over the top of the muffins after they come out of the oven.
This quick recipe uses a food processor to whiz up macadamia nuts before incorporating them into a lemon sponge mixture. The sharpness of the lemon contrasts so well with the rich and buttery nuts. If you can’t get hold of macadamias, you can replace them with ready-ground almonds for an even speedier cake, as the almonds won’t need whizzing in the food processor.
Prep time: 20 minutes
Baking time: 15–18 minutes
Ready in: 50 minutes
Makes: 12 cakes
50g (2oz) macadamia nuts
150g (5oz) self-raising flour, sifted
150g (5oz) caster sugar
3 eggs
Finely grated zest of 2 lemons
100g (3½oz) butter, melted
For the icing
200g (7oz) lemon curd (to make it yourself,
25g (1oz) macadamia nuts (or almonds), lightly toasted (see the tip) and roughly chopped
12-cup muffin tray and 12 muffin cases
Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F), Gas mark 4, and line the muffin tray with the paper cases.
Place the macadamia nuts in a food processor and whiz for a minute or two until fairly fine. Add the rest of the ingredients and pulse just until combined. Divide the batter between the muffin cases, filling each up to three-quarters full.
Bake for 15–18 minutes or until the cakes spring back lightly to the touch. Take out of the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes, then remove from the tin and place on a wire rack to cool down fully.
When the cupcakes are cool, spread generously with lemon curd, then scatter over the toasted macadamia nuts.
Tip To toast nuts, either scatter them over a baking tray in a single layer and toast them in the oven (preheated to 180°C/350°F/Gas mark 4) for 4–5 minutes or until golden brown, or place them in a frying pan and toast over a medium–low heat for a similar length of time. In either case, the nuts need to be shaken every so often to prevent them burning on one side.
Coconut and lemongrass, two quintessentially Southeast Asian ingredients, are combined here in this deliciously moist cake. The lemongrass is added to a syrup that infuses the sponge with its aromatic flavour. Found in supermarkets as well as in Asian food shops, the taste of lemongrass is certainly reminiscent of lemons but has a unique floral flavour all of its own.
Prep time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 40–45 minutes
Ready in: 1 hour 30 minutes
Serves: 6–8
4 stalks of lemongrass, base and tops trimmed, outer leaves removed but reserved for the syrup
250g (9oz) caster sugar
4 eggs
200g (7oz) butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
125g (4½oz) desiccated coconut
125g (4½oz) plain flour, plus extra for dusting
2 tsp baking powder
Greek yoghurt or crème fraîche, to serve
For the syrup
Reserved trimmings and outer leaves of the lemongrass
75g (3oz) caster sugar
23cm (9in) diameter cake tin with 6cm (2½in) sides
Preheat the oven to 170°C (325°F), Gas mark 3. Butter the sides of the cake tin and dust with flour, then line the base with a disc of baking parchment.
Slice the lemongrass stalks quite thinly into rounds about 3mm (⅛in) thick, then place in a food processor with the caster sugar and whiz for 1–2 minutes or until the lemongrass is finely pureed and very aromatic. Add the eggs, butter and coconut and whiz again until combined, then sift the flour and baking powder together and add to the machine, whizzing very briefly just until the ingredients come together.
Tip the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 40–45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
While the cake is cooking, make the syrup. Roughly chop the lemongrass trimmings, place in a saucepan with the sugar and 75ml (3fl oz) of water and set over a high heat. Stir the mixture until the sugar is dissolved, then bring to the boil and boil for 2 minutes before removing from the heat and leaving to infuse.
When the cake has finished baking, take it out of the oven and let it sit in the tin for 10 minutes. Loosen around the edges using a small, sharp knife and carefully remove the cake from the tin before transferring to a serving plate.
Reheat the syrup, then pierce holes all over the cake with a skewer and pour the hot syrup through a sieve onto the cake, moving the pan and sieve around as you pour so that the syrup covers the top of the cake. Allow the cake to cool down completely.
Serve
