Recipe created by Camille Arcese @camicooks
These cakes are decadent, beautifully spiced, dense and moist! The fresh cranberries beautifully contrast the sticky-sweetness of the cakes – they’re a treat that will have everyone raising an eyebrow with delight.
Note: For a how-to on preparing the muffin pan, head to my @camicooks Instagram Reels!
Directions
- PREHEAT oven to 350F. Prepare your muffin tins by brushing with softened butter and lining the bottom of each with a small circle of parchment cut to fit.
- ADD chopped dates, ginger, and baking soda to a heat safe bowl and cover with the boiling water (just one cup). Leave to soften for 10 minutes then blend until chunky-smooth with an immersion blender, regular blender, or food processor. Let it hang out a moment.
- MIX the butter and brown sugar together with an electric mixer on medium speed until combined and a little fluffy, pausing to scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula a couple of times.
- ADD eggs one at a time, pausing to scrape the bowl as before. Don’t worry, the mixture isn’t supposed to be completely smooth - you’ll know it’s combined enough when the butter lumps are smaller than peas.
- ADD the vanilla, oil, molasses, and date-ginger mixture. Mix until combined, and of course, pause and scrape.
- WHISK to combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and spices in another mixing bowl.
- MIX the dry ingredients to the wet in 2 additions with the mixer on low speed, pausing to scrape the bowl one last time.
- STIR the cranberries into the batter and spoon into the prepared muffin tins until 3/4-full.
- BAKE in preheated oven 17-18 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the centre of a cake comes out with just a few crumbs. Use a mini offset spatula to easily loosen the sides of the cakes if needed, then invert onto a cooling rack until ready to serve but do warm them up before serving if they’ve cooled too much.
- While the cakes are baking , HEAT a small saucepan over medium. Once heated add butter and melt.
- ADD brown sugar and cream and stir constantly until sugar is dissolved.
- SIMMER for 3 minutes, increasing heat just a little if needed to bring to a simmer. Stir now and then.
- REMOVE caramel from heat and stir in salt. Taste to check salt level and adjust as desired. Pour over warm sticky ginger cakes and serve with vanilla ice cream if you’d like. Cool leftover sauce to room temp, transfer to a mason jar, and store in the fridge up to 2 weeks.
Ingredients
- Sticky Ginger Cakes
- 1 ½ cups cranberries fresh, unthawed, or frozen
- 175 g deglet dates pitted, roughly chopped
- 75 g candied ginger roughly chopped
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 cup boiling water
- 1/3 cup unsalted butter room temperature, plus more for greasing pans
- ½ cup dark brown sugar packed
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp canola/neutral oil
- ¼ cup molasses
- 1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¾ tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- ¼ tsp ground allspice
- 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
- Salted Caramel
- ½ cup unsalted butter (1 stick)
- 1 cup dark brown sugar
- 1/3 cup whipping cream
- ½ tsp sea salt
