Anna Jones' easy stem ginger pudding recipes | Food (2024)

Easy apple and double ginger cake

An easy cake with a double hit of ginger. This way of using the apple to top the cake is inspired by the brilliant cook and writer Anja Dunk. If you are a ginger-lover like me, you could add another couple of balls of stem ginger.

200g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp fine sea salt
2 tsp ground ginger
200g butter, plus extra for greasing
150g dark brown soft sugar
3 balls of stem ginger (75g), finely chopped, plus syrup from the jar for brushing and drizzling
3 large eggs
5-6 small eating apples
1 tbsp demerara sugar, for sprinkling

Melt the butter in a pan, then whisk in the sugar and stem ginger. Leave to cool slightly, then beat in the eggs one by one, until emulsified. Fold through the dry ingredients and pour into the cake tin.

Peel, core and halve the apples, then very thinly slice about two thirds of the way down each half, leaving the last third uncut to hold the apple together. Arrange the apples cut side up on top of the batter, brush with the syrup, then sprinkle over the demerara sugar and the remaining teaspoon of ground ginger.

Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 45-50 minutes, until golden and cooked through – test the thickest part of the cake with a skewer: if it doesn’t come out clean, put the cake back in for another five minutes.

Remove the cake from the oven and pour over two tablespoons of the syrup from the jar. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then remove from the tin and serve. This is best eaten on the day, but will keep well for three days wrapped in clingfilm or kept in a sealed container.

Stem ginger fool with lemon and rhubarb

This is so light, pillowy and spiked with ginger, I find it hard to think of a dessert I’d rather eat. You can skip the rhubarb, if you prefer, but I think it adds welcome sharpness and colour. As the seasons change, squashed berries would work well in its place.

For the rhubarb
2 stems forced rhubarb, finely sliced
1 heaped tbsp caster sugar

For the fool
300ml double cream
100ml thick Greek yoghurt
6 balls stem ginger, 4 finely chopped, 2 finely sliced, plus 1 tbsp of syrup from the jar
Zest of ½ lemon

Whip the cream a little shy of soft peaks, then fold in the yoghurt. Add the finely chopped ginger, and stir it through with the ginger syrup and lemon zest.

When it has cooled, stir half the rhubarb into the cream.

Top the dessert with the finely sliced ginger and the rest of the rhubarb.