Apricot and Ginger Loaf

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I haven't made a loaf cake for a while, but having a sort out of my baking cupboard, I found some wholemeal flour, stem ginger and a bag of dried apricots that needed using. Thought they'd make a good combination in a loaf cake. I find using just wholemeal flour make cakes too heavy for my taste, so I always do half wholemeal and half white.
It's a quick loaf to make - preheat your oven to 180C/gas 4 and grease a 900g loaf tin.
Put 115g wholemeal flour and 115g plain flour in a bowl with 11/2 tspns of baking powder. Add 150g soft light brown sugar, 115g butter, 2 eggs, zest of a lemon and 2 tbspn of milk. Beat together using an electric mixer for about 2 mins then fold in 175g of dried apricots [not the ones you have to soak] which have been chopped. Finely chop 3 pieces of stem ginger and you need 4 tbspns of the syrup from the jar, Add these to the cake mixture. Thinly slice 1 more piece of stem ginger. Spoon the mixture into the loaf tin and level the top, then arrange the slices of ginger down the centre.
Bake for 1-1/4 hours and cover the top with some foil if it's getting too brown.
Leave the loaf to cool in the tin for a while then put it on a wire rack.
I decided to ice it with some glace icing using 115g icing sugar and 1 tbspn of lemon juice.


I think the stem ginger gives the loaf a much better flavour than ground ginger. The apricots worked well with the ginger, and I think the lemon icing gave it the finishing touch. 

Comments

Suelle said…
This is my kind of cake - lovely flavours!
29/8/13 1:38 pm
Phil in the Kitchen said…
Lovely cake. The lemon icing is a great idea to complement the other flavours.
29/8/13 4:08 pm
The Caked Crusader said…
I love a loaf cake because they're so easy to slice - love your mix of fruit and spice
30/8/13 12:18 pm
Anonymous said…
such a beautiful cake,loved the speckled apricots in it....looks so lovely and tempting,definite winner :-)
30/8/13 7:28 pm
Choclette said…
This loaf sounds heavenly as well. Love the flavours and you've made it look so pretty.
31/8/13 11:22 am
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