Ginger and Bourbon Take the Cake

Ginger is one of my favorite spices to use everyday. Many don't realize it can be used for much more than just pumpkin pie and spice breads, plus the spice also plays a role in our health.

Ginger helps with motion sickness, indigestion and even appetite loss. Ginger has a spicy, peppery taste and aroma, and gives a sense of warmth when consumed. The spice is used fresh in Chinese and Indian meat and fish dishes, vegetables, beans, curries and stews. In Western cultures, it is used mostly as spice to flavor sweet preparations such as gingerbread, cookies, cakes, pies and pudding, and also to season some chicken dishes and meat stews.

You can purchase fresh ginger at most every grocery store. It can be stored for months in your refrigerator. I always freeze ginger root wrapped in plastic wrap and then placed in a freezer bag. With the spice frozen it makes it easy to grate it for any recipe.

This is a recipe I got from the Thanksgiving Edition of Martha Stewart's Magazine. This makes a wonderful main dessert piece at a special dinner. The cake is very rich and the sauce just tops off the delicious flavorings...

Chocolate-Ginger Cake with Bourbon Sauce

½ C. (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pan
½ C. unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder, plus more for dusting
½ C. molasses
¾ C. packed light-brown sugar
2 large eggs
¼ C. whole milk
2 tsp. finely grated peeled fresh ginger
1 C. ap flour
¾ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. coarse salt
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. cinnamon
Bourbon Sauce recipe follows

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter a 9-inch Bundt pan. Dust with cocoa powder, and tap out excess, set aside. Put butter, molasses, brown sugar, ¼ C. water in a medium sauce pan over medium-low heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until butter has melted. Transfer mixture to a large bowl. Let cool for 5 minutes.

Add eggs, milk, grated ginger to molasses mixture; whisk to combine. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, ground ginger, and cinnamon into a medium bowl.

Gently fold the flour mixture into the molasses mixture until just combined (There should be lumps remaining.) Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake cake until a cake tester comes out clean when placed in the middle of cake, about 30 minutes. Let cake cool completely in pan on wire rack.

Invert cake and unmold onto a cake stand or a large serving platter. Using a spoon drizzle the warm bourbon sauce over the cake in a back and forth motion. Serve immediately.

Bourbon Sauce
Makes 1 1/2 C.

½ C. (1 stick) unsalted butter
2 large egg yolks
1 C. packed dark-brown sugar
1 tsp. pure vanilla
¼ C. good-quality bourbon

Put butter, egg yolks, brown sugar, vanilla, and bourbon in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Cook, whisking constantly, until mixture registers 165 degrees on a candy thermometer, about 7 minutes.

Remove bowl of sauce and let set for 15 minutes. Drizzle the sauce in a back and forth motion around the cake.