Chocolate and ginger cake with sherry buttercream
Prep time: 25 mins Total time: 
Chocolate and ginger cake with sherry buttercream
Prep time: 25 mins Total time: 
Jackson and Levine
Laura Jackson and Alice Levine set up their popular east London supper club in 2013. Their book, Jackson & Levine, Round To Ours is a collection of stress-free menus for entertaining.
Jackson and Levine
Laura Jackson and Alice Levine set up their popular east London supper club in 2013. Their book, Jackson & Levine, Round To Ours is a collection of stress-free menus for entertaining.
Ingredients
- 150g coconut oil, melted plus extra for the tin
- 75g cocoa powder, plus extra for dusting
- 180g pitted dates, soaked in hot water until cool, then drained
- 2 balls of stem ginger in syrup, plus 2 tsp of the syrup
- 150ml clear honey
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 225g ground almonds
- 60g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), melted and cooled
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp gluten-free baking powder
- 5 large eggs,lightly beaten
- 4 tbsp milk
- 40g crystallised ginger, to decorate
For the sherry buttercream
- 150g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 300g icing sugar, sifted
- 3 tbsp sherry
- 1 tbsp stem ginger syrup
Step by step
The cake can be kept for 5 days, stored in an airtight container at room temperature.
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Preheat the oven to 160°C, fan 140°C, gas 3. Oil and line a 23cm springform cake tin with baking paper and dust with cocoa powder. Put the drained dates, stem ginger balls and syrup, honey, melted coconut oil and vanilla extract into a food processor and process for a couple of minutes until you have a very smooth, thick paste. Add all the remaining ingredients, except the eggs and milk, and blitz again very quickly – for no more than 30 seconds, just long enough to make sure it’s mixed. Add the eggs and blitz for another 30 seconds, then add the milk and blitz for 10 seconds.
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Pour the batter into the prepared tin, then place in the oven on the middle shelf for 1-11⁄4 hours, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Don’t open the oven door before 45 minutes have passed.
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Leave to cool in the tin. Once cool, use the spring release to ease the cake out and slide on to your serving plate.
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For the buttercream, beat the butter to soften it, then gradually add the icing sugar until it is all incorporated. Add the sherry and the stem ginger syrup. If it gets a little loose, just add more icing sugar.
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When the cake is completely cool, cover it with the buttercream and decorate with the crystallised ginger.
Jackson & Levine's book Round To Ours is out now.
