It’s January 15th. So goes another one.
Today would have been my dad’s 79th birthday. It was always an easy date to remember since it’s also MLK’s actual birthday. He used to say it was a great day for great men. He’s not wrong, but I still roll my eyes and smile at the arrogance.
He’s been on my mind a lot lately. I think about how much of life has happened over the past 8 years; exciting things that we never got to talk about. He never saw this blog and no doubt would have poo-pooed it at first. But, he also no doubt would have read every word, and as the years passed and as more exciting opportunities came from it, he also would have told every person he met on the street about it, without fail. “Hey, my daughter has a food blog. You should read it!” That was just his way about pretty much everything.
Now, on to this cake. Each year on my family members’ birthdays, I celebrate with a cake or treat, one of his or her favorites. In the same way that I have a problem coming up with favorites on my own birthday, six years into this pony ride, I’ve gone through their lists of favorites, too. Therefore, I do my best to come up with something that I’m sure they would love. Last year, I twisted up Baba’s favorite dessert of Cinnamon Toast Crunch + vanilla ice cream with this Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal Milk Cake and this year, we’re rocking the day and his memory with a mandarin ginger tea cake.
How did I get here? Well, I started with carrot cake with ginger, and when my friends with big appetites and open minds commented that carrot cake was so over done, and suggested that I could come up with something better than that, I rose to the challenge.
Note: Carrot cake is bomb, and I do love it (with nuts, without raisins or pineapple).
From there I ran with the ginger, and wanted to do something simple and tasty that would go perfect with a cup of tea (because Baba was very dedicated to his afternoon tea, with sugar and evaporated milk, brewed to the perfect caramel color). It wasn’t going to be gingerbread because that just didn’t feel right, and when I was walking through the market and spotted this season’s mandarin oranges, I knew that those just did. And so here we are.
This is a heavy cake, but the ginger and citrus lighten it up in a way that is deceiving. By design, it’s also not terribly sweet, and will do well to be served with a dash of powdered sugar and dollop of sweetened whipped cream, but also stands tall on it’s own without embellishment.
It came out exactly the way I had envisioned and the way that I know that Baba would have just loved it, making it the perfect tea time treat.
That is, as long I got the color of his tea right.
Mandarin Ginger Tea Cake
Fresh and ground ginger combined with the flavors fresh mandarin add brightness and lightness to this indulgent mandarin ginger tea cake.
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup + 1 TB granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup + 1 TB light brown sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1/4 cup fresh ginger root, minced
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 tsp ground ginger
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 1 TB mandarin orange zest
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2/3 cup + 3 TB fresh-squeezed mandarin orange juice
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- Fresh sweetened whipped cream, to serve (optional)
Directions
- Step 1 Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Step 2 Grease a 9” Bundt pan (or a 4” deep, 8 or 9” round) and coat the sides with sugar. Set aside.
- Step 3 In the bowl of an electric mixer at medium-high speed, beat the butter and sugars until very light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating between each addition. Add the vanilla and give it a mix.
- Step 4 Add the ginger root, orange zest and ground ginger and mix thoroughly. Reduce the speed to low, and add the baking powder and salt and half of the flour. Mix until well combined (but do not over mix) and add the orange juice. Add the remaining flour. Turn the mixer off, and mix by hand to fully combine .
- Step 5 Bake for 45-50 minutes (longer, about 1 hour and 10 minutes if using a deeper pan) until a toothpick in the center comes out clean. Let cool on a rack in the pan for 10 minutes. Invert on the cooling rack to cool completely.
- Step 6 Serve with sweetened whipped cream, if desired.