Coffee, maple and ginger cake with maple-caramelised pecans

Today I went to visit my very pregnant friend Lucy for a cuppa and a catch up.  Her favourite cake is coffee cake, so I made this coffee cake with a twist - the flavour is intensified with fresh ginger and maple syrup, so it tastes like a gingerbread latte!  I iced it with a coffee and maple buttercream and decorated it with pecan nuts caramelised in a pan of bubbling maple syrup.

The sponge cake base is loosely based on Dan Lepard's recipe for coffee and ginger cake, but I forgot to add oil - it turned out fine though, I think because I added maple syrup and didn't include ground pistachios.  I also made it more moist by making a coffee syrup which I poured over the hot cake skewered with holes and left it to cool in the tin (inspired by Delia Smith's Austrian coffee and walnut cake, but I also added maple syrup and a little ground ginger).  Rather than Dan Lepard's lemon-cream cheese frosting or Delia's coffee mascarpone frosting, I opted for a simple buttercream flavoured with maple syrup and espresso.

Ingredients

For the cake:

2 oz unsalted butter

2 fl oz maple syrup

2 ½ fl oz milk

1 tbsp instant espresso coffee powder

2cm piece root ginger, finely grated

2 large eggs

8 oz caster sugar

2 ½ oz chopped crystallised ginger

9 oz self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp ground ginger

For the syrup:

1 tbsp instant espresso coffee powder

½ tsp ground ginger

2 tsp demerara sugar

2 fl oz maple syrup

2 fl oz boiling water

For the buttercream frosting:

3 ½ oz butter at room temperature7 ½ oz icing sugar
3 tbsp maple syrup
2 tsp instant espresso coffee powder

1 tbsp water

For the caramelised pecans:

2 fl oz maple syrup

3 ½ oz shelled pecan nuts

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 175°C and grease a 9” round cake tin.
2. Melt the butter and maple syrup in a small saucepan. Once melted, stir in the milk, coffee and ginger and set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and the sugar together until the mix is lightly coloured and foamy.
4. Add the coffee-ginger mix and beat to combine.  
5. With a large metal spoon, mix in the crystallised ginger, and then gently fold in the flour, baking powder and ground ginger.
6. Pour batter into the prepared tin and bake for 35 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean.
7. Meanwhile, make the syrup: place the coffee, ground ginger, demerara and maple syrup in a heatproof jug, then pour the boiling water into it and stir briskly until the coffee and sugar have dissolved.
8. Remove the cake from the oven but leave in its tin, then prick it all over with a skewer while still hot.  Spoon the syrup over the cake and leave it to soak up the liquid as it cools in the tin.
9. To make the icing, cream the butter until light and creamy, then beat in the icing sugar. Pour in the maple syrup and keep beating till the mixture is light and fluffy. Dissolve the instant coffee in the tablespoon of water, then pour into the mixture, beating as you go. Cover with clingfilm and refrigerate until needed.
10. To make the maple-caramelised pecans, place the maple syrup in a small saucepan and heat without stirring until bubbling.  Add the pecans and toss to coat them before removing from the heat and pouring onto a tray to cool.
11. When the cake is cold, turn it out onto a serving plate, spread with the icing and arrange the caramelised pecans on top.