Dining In - Durbanville Wine Valley’s cheese partner, Simonsberg Cheese, is working on something special for cheese lovers. We chose this special recipe, developed by Jacques Erasmus from Hemelhuijs, to pair perfectly with Meerdendal’s Natural Sweet.
Ginger cake with Simonsberg edam and honey
Makes 1 loaf (12 slices)
200g butter
200g soft brown sugar
225g flour
10ml ground ginger
200g sultanas
60g molasses
4 eggs
125ml milk
5ml bicarbonate of soda
Simonsberg edam cheese, thinly sliced
Honey for drizzling
Prepare a 12x25 cm loaf tin. Soften the butter, add the sugar and beat thoroughly until creamy. Sift the flour with the ground ginger, then add half of it to the sultanas, mix well, set aside. Stir the molasses into the butter and sugar mixture. Beat eggs one by one, adding small portions of the remaining flour and mix well. Warm the milk and dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in the milk. Add the sultana mix with the milk to the cake mixture. Turn into the tin and bake for 1 hour, reducing the heat to 150ºC after 45 minutes. Allow the cake to cool and cut into thin slices. Serve the ginger cake with slices of Simonsberg edam, drizzled with honey.
Tips:
• Add extra ground ginger for a double dose of spicy goodness.
• For extra punch, add a teaspoon of ground cinnamon.
• Add a ¼ cup chopped stem ginger in syrup to the flour mixture - it adds a lovely texture to the ginger loaf. Some of the
ginger syrup drained from the preserved ginger, can be drizzled over the slices of ginger cake, together with the honey.
• Edam can be replaced with matured gouda and slices of green apple.
• The cake improves with keeping. Wrap in greaseproof paper and foil. A good idea will be to double the recipe to make
1 loaf to store for a day or two; and another to eat straight away.
