Mother’s Day calls for cake and this year I’ve gone for a very indulgent double gin cake – a Gin Ginger Cake with Gin and Lemon Icing because, quite frankly, I deserve it. Two of my boys have spread their wings and flown the nest – one is in Liverpool nearing the end of his first year at Uni and the other flew to Tokyo last week to spend 5 months studying there! Meanwhile my Darling Girl is now 17 and spent yesterday collecting University prospectuses at a UCAS showcase day in Worcester and then poring over them, planning her next steps.
In May I will have been parenting for 21 years and I’m pretty proud of the young adults I have nurtured – a double gin cake seems a pretty good way to celebrate!
Portmeirion sent me a lovely selection of crockery and cutlery from their gorgeous Crazy Daisy Collection just in time for this Mother’s Day shoot and I am totally in love with it! It just shouts SPRING at me, it’s so cheery and full of personality. I suspect you will see bits of this lovely set popping up regularly as the season really gets into its stride!
So – my cake, you’re drooling right? The base for this grown-up treat is a richly flavoured black treacle cake pepped up with a bit of fiery ginger and spiked with a little gin; it is filled with creamy lemon butter icing, also spiked with gin – I’m really onto a winner here! It is the sort of cake that has you sniffing the air as it bakes and licking the bowl when you’ve iced it. It’s not complicated and it tastes divine.
I decorated my gin cake with edible flowers because my garden is bursting with beautiful pastel primroses at the moment – I also have posies of them all over the house, I love opening the curtains to find them smiling up at me from the windowsills!
I think, like many food bloggers, that I may now be addicted to gorgeous crockery – I quite often plan my cakes and bakes around the pretty plates which fill my cupboard. As I gaze at these lovely photos I am already planning the next thing to adorn this Crazy Daisy Tableware and I’m thinking that a luscious lemon cream cake or maybe a thyme and lemon cake or possibly some lavender biscuits might fit the bill…what would you whip up to show off their bright colours and cheery flowery faces?
Oh, and I have to check…I’m not the only one singing ‘Gin Ginger’ to the tune of Bowie’s Jean Genie, am I?!
Gin Cake for Mother's Day
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 150 ml milk
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp gin
- 170 g plain flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 115 g butter at room temperature
- 115 g caster sugar
- 1 egg at room temperature
- 175 g black treacle
For the Icing
- 125 g softened butter
- 400 g icing sugar
- 3 tbsp milk
- 1- 2 tbsp gin
To Decorate
- Edible flowers (I used spring primroses)
Instructions
To Make the Gin Cake
- Preheat your oven to 180C/350F. Grease and line two 23cm round cake tins.
- Add the lemon juice and gin to the milk and leave aside to curdle.
- Sift all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
- Cream the sugar and butter in a stand mixer or by hand until pale and fluffy.
- Gradually beat in the egg.
- Stir in the treacle.
- Fold in the dry ingredients in batches, taking it in turns with the curdled milk mixture until well blended.
- Pour into the prepared tins and bake for about 40 mins or until a skewer inserted comes out clean and the cakes are firm.
- Leave to cool in the tins for 5 minutes and then turn out onto wire cooling racks and leave to cool completely.
To Make the Gin and Lemon Butter Icing
- Beat the butter in a stand mixer or by hand until pale and creamy.
- Sift the icing sugar into the bowl with the butter. Add the milk and the gin and beat on low speed until smooth and thick.
Assembling the Cake
- Spread 1/2 the icing mixture onto top of one cake and then place the other cake on top to sandwich it.
- Spread the remaining butter icing over the top of the second cake and decorate as you wish, I used edible flowers!
If you like my Gin Cake with Gin and Lemon Icing why not Pin it for Later?
Disclosure: Portmeirion sent me a selection of tableware and asked me to develop a recipe to show it off. I think my gin cake did just that, don’t you?!
More Mother’s Day (or any day, why wait?!) Cake Ideas
Orange Blossom Blueberry Loaf Cake With A Blueberry Glaze – Recipes From a Pantry
Passionfruit Bundt Cake with Passionfruit Syrup – Recipes From a Pantry
Green Apple Fruit Cake – Tinned Tomatoes
Blueberry, Banana & White Chocolate Chip Muffins – Fab Food For All
Lavender Honey Cake with a Scent of Lemon & Honey Cream Cheese Icing – Tin and Thyme
Gin Cake for Mother’s day? I bet this gorgeous-looking dessert would make any mum happy!!
It certainly makes me happy Andrea!
That looks gorgeous and you must feel proud and sad in equal measures. You deserve a treat like this. Happy mother’s day to you xx
I really do, thank Jac and Happy Mother’s Day to you too xxx
Gin, cake and beautiful crockery – what else more do I need 🙂
Nothing, quite frankly! 😀
What a delicious and beautiful cake Chris, Happy Mother’s Day:-)
Thanks Camilla, and to you!
I was drinking lovely gin cocktails this weekend and would have loved a slice of this to go with it, love the flavours and that icing too! Great to see such modern designs from Portmerion and imaging that tea set will be getting lots of use 🙂
Mmmm, gin cocktails! I love the design on this crockery, it’s just so full of joy!
Double gin cake? Wow! Reckon you deserve it though. Fab Mother’s Day post and it all looks so pretty with the jolly tea set and my favourite primroses. Spring is here – tra la la!
I reckon I do, it’s been quite a year! The tea set is becoming a firm family favourite this spring, so pretty and who can resist a primrose topped cake?!