Fudge Iced Ginger Bread - Back to school dinners

Back in 2003 I had a website, a really successful website about the social history food and of school dinners in particular. I recreated them and it was incredible how much interest there was especially in the puddings, this was the days before The Bake Off, the baking "renaissance"  and the internet being saturated with recipes. I had a sort of monopoly .. I was even in discussions about a book with a publisher but then life happened, my Dad was taken from us and the hands of time seemed to stop, I couldn't face looking at the website anymore or even thinking about it, what was such a passion became sickening over night, the human brain is a funny old thing and I often think about what "could have been" if I had kept going. There is no point dwelling on the past though and those recipes are still there in the form of my tatty old 1960s Birmingham school meals handbook along with my scrawled improvements or modern measurements / temperatures so I thought it was about time I brought some of them back to life again! Of course there was Chocolate Concrete, Manchester Tart and Sticky Toffee Pudding but my personal favourite has always been this the "Fudge Iced Ginger Bread", oh how I LOVED it .. always being obsessed with my belly I used to dream about it all the way through double maths and would be absolutely gutted if my year group was on "last dinners" and it had all gone. It has been many years since I have made it but now as the delicious of waft of ginger still lingers in the air of my home I think the love affair is about to be rekindled... It is delicious served warm with a big portion of custard or cold on its own as an afternoon treat. It keeps for up to 5 days in a sealed container and actually improves with age, the longer you leave it the bigger the layer of sticky deliciousness on the bottom gets. 

Just a quick note on the recipe, for once margarine is best. Forget about it being made to force feed turkeys during the war and all that malarky just get yourself a tub of Stork and go with it! Butter just doesn't work as well. Also use the cheapest ingredients you have (really!!), remember school cooks had a really tight budget and there was certainly no room for organic this or fair trade that, I have used bog standard plain flour, granulated sugar and stork. I have used a free range egg though :) 

Ingredients:

For the cake: 

8oz Plain Flour

4 level teaspoons ground ginger 

4oz Stork or margarine

4oz granulated sugar 

8oz golden syrup

1/4 pint milk

1 egg 

1 level teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

For the "fudge icing"

1oz margarine

2 dessertspoons of milk 

6oz icing sugar 

1. Prepare a swiss roll tin - line with parchment paper (it is REALLY important it is lined with non stick paper). Preheat your oven to 150c / gas mark 2 / 315F

2. Put the margarine, sugar, milk and golden syrup in a saucepan and melt on a low heat until all the ingredients are combined. Leave to cool for around 5 minutes.

3. Sieve the flour into a mixing bowl and then sieve in the ground ginger. 

4. Beat the egg and bicarbonate of soda into the melted marg mixture.

5. Pour this into the dry ingredients and beat for 5 minutes (yes, 5 minutes). 

Your mixture should look like this (I always think carrot cake batter without the carrots)

6. Pour into the prepared tin and pop in the middle of the oven and bake for 50 minutes (yep, that isn't a typo, 50 minutes).

Meanwhile prepare the fudge icing. 

7. Put the butter and milk into a saucepan and melt over a low heat, this won't take long, take off the heat, turn the heat off.

8.  Beat in the icing sugar, beat until it is shiny and smooth, it will be rather yellow - don't worry about it! Put to one side to cool.

9. Take the cake out of the oven, if it is "hissing" it needs a couple of more minutes. It should be spongy and quiet firm. 

10. Beat the fudge icing again to remove any skin that has formed and pour over the hot cake. Spread all over with a pallet knife and leave to cool in the tin. 

11. When cool, slice and eat - or slice and store for up to 5 days in a sealed container. It lasts about 2 hours in my house though, half is already gone as I type! This is not a time for fancy pants photos on vintage platters so here is the final masterpiece! It is simple and so SO tongue tingling delicious and so, so light!