By Keighley’s Mike Armstrong, an award-winning master baker with a big passion for baking...

IS ginger the king of winter cakes? Or do we have another favourite companion for a cup of tea at this time of year?

Bonfire Night is on the horizon and this week's recipe looks at ginger – that fiery root mass, with its fine flavour and heat that enliven a cake, which is delicious on its own, but very good warmed for a pudding and served with custard or ice cream. And maybe some cream, too.

For all its South-East Asian origins, ginger seems to me to be a very northern spice, its sweet heat perfectly attuned to the privations of a dull British winter.

A whisky to cure a cold, a slab of Parkin eaten around a Yorkshire bonfire on plot night, a packet full of ginger nuts to cheer you up on a damp walk or stressful day at work – all these things really ought to be on the NHS from October to April.

There are as many recipes for ginger breads and cakes as there are potholes around our region, and a great many folk have a set of trusted and most beloved recipes from which they will not stray.

My mum made a ginger cake that was dark and sticky and sank magnificently in the middle and looked like a black hole – no bonfire party was complete without one and, when cold from the November chill, a slice covered with cold butter made for the best shivery bite ever till the bonfire was fully alight.

Ginger cake is about as grown-up as a cake can get, especially if it is studded with crystallised ginger, faintly spicy and mysterious. These dark-crumbed Sunday teatime treats are something that appeal more as you get older, like Midsomer Murders and Antiques Roadshow.

Part of the intrigue of such cakes is that, despite containing both dense black sugar and heavy golden syrup, they are not at all sweet. As I said, mysterious. I do confess to having many recipes for ginger cake, but the resulting cakes I make are all amply rewarding, although I don't suggest leaving the cake to sit for a couple of days before carving the first slice, it's such torture pinching off every corner! A slab of cake to cut up on the kitchen table is always a tradition in my house, while drinking mashed, weak tea

RECIPE

GINGER CAKE

Ingredients:

225g/8oz self-raising flour

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

100g/3 1/2oz butter

100g/3 1/2oz golden syrup

100g/3 1/2oz black treacle

100g/3 1/2oz light soft brown sugar

50g/2oz stem ginger

2 eggs

200ml/7fl oz milk

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/Gas Mark 4 and grease a 20cm/8in square cake tin and line with baking parchment.

2. In a large mixing bowl, add the flour, ginger, cinnamon, bicarbonate of soda and butter and rub in to fine breadcrumbs.

3. Put the golden syrup, black treacle, brown sugar and diced stem ginger in a pan, heat gently until all the sugar has dissolved, then cook for another minute over a high heat and remove.

4. Beat the eggs and milk together and stir into the syrup mixture, then mix into the flour and butter mixture.

5. Pour the gingery batter into the cake tin and bake for around 45 minutes till golden brown.