gâteau au gingembre frais (fresh ginger cake)

I grew up with having mom-made fresh ginger tea whenever I caught a cold. Yeah, I didn't like ginger tea at all back then (and none of ginger related dish either), but look at me now, I made myself a cup of fresh ginger tea when I had a sore throat last week (Does this mean I am officially "old"?). Well, anyway, the ginger I found here was really big - almost as big as my hand - and I used only half of it for ginger tea. So, I riffled through my cooking book to see whether I can make something nice with the other half, et voilà, gâteau au gingembre frais!

Ingredients (6-8 servings):

• 250g of butter (cut it into little cubes)
• 110g of cassonade sugar
• 230g of sugarcane syrup (dark)
• 12cm of fresh ginger
• 150g of all-purpose flour
• 150g of self-rising flour
• 1/2 tsp of baking powder
• 2 eggs
• 180ml of crème fraîche épaisse (I don't know how I put this in English. This cream tastes more like sour cream, not whipping cream)

**

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.

grate (or mince) ginger (but me, I simply made ginger julienne)

whisk eggs lightly

butter a round cake pan (22cm diameter)

In a small saucepan, put butter, cassonade sugar, sugarcane syrup,

and ginger. Then melt the mixture with low heat, stirring regularly.

Now, the butter/ginger/sugar sauce is ready.

Sift both kinds of flour and baking powder altogether,

and pour the butter/ginger/sugar sauce then mix well.

Add whisked eggs and crème fraîche épaisse as well.

Pour the batter into the buttered cake pan and bake about 50 mins.

Then, 10 minute-long rest.

So, the fresh ginger cake is ready!

**

We can also make 'crème dorée au gingembre'.

Prepare 150ml of crème fraîche épaisse,

add 1Tsp of sugarcane syrup (dark) and 1tsp of ginger powder.

Whisk them "hard". (yeah, without electric mixer, it's such a hard work)

Mmmmmmm, this is really good!!! :D