I love Nigel Slater.

Not only is he a great cook, he's also a brilliant writer. One of my favourite books by Mr Slater, Toast, isn't just a book about food. It's his life story, as remembered through food.

And then there are his recipes. If you take a look at his cookbooks, the first thing that strikes you is just how simple he makes everything sound. When you actually attempt any one of his recipes, "lo and behold" you'll exclaim, the recipes ARE really as easy to do as he says. And the results, more often than not, taste pretty darn good to boot.

So here we are, at Nigel Slater's Double Ginger Cake.


Stem ginger. Brown sugar. Cinnamon. Syrup. In a cake. Need I say more?

An excerpt from Mr Slater's recipe:

"Faintly spicy and mysterious, these dark-crumbed teatime treats are something that appeal more as you get older, like Midsomer Murders and boxes of Quality Street. Part of the intrigue of such cakes is that, despite containing both dense black-brown sugar and heavy golden syrup, they are not at all sweet. As I said, mysterious."

He also writes that the cake tastes better after we've left it to mature for a few days.

The first time I made this cake for some teatime company, there wasn't any left to "mature for a few days".

This second time round, it's for Wandernut. So I've wisely baked the cake a few days in advance, so it gets to her after it has matured.