I emailed Nigel at the guardian a few yrs back and told him what a great recipe it was and he replied suggesting we try it with a strong fruity cheese.
Its a big cake and Iv found that people who have never eaten ginger cake or dont like it always change there minds after this.
Its ginger heaven!
Servings: 8
Level of difficulty: Easy
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 40 minutes
Ingredients
250g self-raising flour
2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
pinch fine salt
200g golden syrup
2 tbsp syrup from the jar of Ginger
125g butter
3 lumps stem ginger in syrup, about 55g
2 tbsp sultanas, heaped
125g dark muscovado sugar
2 large eggs
240ml Milk
Method
You will need a square cake tin measuring approximately 20-22cm, lined on the bottom with baking parchment or greaseproof paper.
Set the oven at 180C/Gas 4. Sift the flour with the ginger, cinnamon, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Put the golden and ginger syrups and the butter into a small saucepan and warm over a low heat. Dice the ginger finely, then add it to the pan with the sultanas and sugar. Let the mixture bubble gently for a minute, giving it the occasional stir to stop the fruit sticking on the bottom.
Break the eggs into a bowl, pour in the milk and beat gently to break up the egg and mix it into the milk. Remove the butter and sugar mixture from the heat and pour into the flour, stirring smoothly and firmly with a large metal spoon. Mix in the milk and eggs. The mixture should be sloppy, with no trace of flour.
Scoop the mixture into the lined cake tin and bake for thirty-five or forty minutes, until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Unless you are serving it warm, leave the cake in its tin to cool, then tip it out on to a sheet of greaseproof paper. Wrap it up in foil and, if you can, leave it to mature for a day or two before eating.
Unfortunately I haven't found preserved ginger in syrup here - I can get it crystalised but dry. Somewhere in my house is a newspaper cut out of a recipe for apple and ginger cake with fresh ginger which is fantastic but I can't bloody well find it!!! 
(thanks)
- so I'd have to go to the Asian store (where they sell the crystalised ginger) as the stuff in the supermarkets is old and woody and no good for grating or anything much really!
) we don't have imported Egyptian* potatoes in winter so all the spuds are old stored ones I presume as the flesh inside is grey and half has to be chopped or peeled off. Garlic is always sprouting and ditto onions in winter - it's rarely different from what I've just finished of my own stored stuff. The majority of fruit and veg for sale is local or from Spain (apart obviously from the tropical type stuff). So there's good and bad there.