Rich, delicious golden syrup sponge cake. Perfect with a cup of tea or as a dessert.

I can’t believe I haven’t made this golden syrup sponge cake before. It’s absolutely delicious and I can’t recommend it highly enough! I got the recipe from Baking with Granny.

And if you can resist eating it all for a couple of days, it would make a brilliant dessert: serve a slice warm with ice cream!

Ingredients (this makes enough mixture for my 29 x 10 cm loaf tin):

• 100 g / 3.5 oz butter (at room temperature)/ baking margarine
• 50 g / 1.8 oz caster sugar
• 50 g / 1.8 oz soft brown sugar
• 200g / 7 oz golden syrup (to melt with the sugars for the cake batter)
• 200 g / 7 oz self-raising flour
• 1 egg (medium or large)
• 150 ml / 5 fl oz milk (whatever kind you have in the house)
• 2 tbsp golden syrup (to glaze the cake once baked)

Method:

Grease your loaf baking tin and line it with greaseproof baking paper. My loaf tin’s internal dimensions are 29 x 10 x 7 cm (approx. 11 x 4 x 3 inches). The original recipe simply says you need a 2-lb loaf tin.

Pre-heat your oven to 160 degrees C (140 degrees C fan)/ Gas Mark 3/ 320 degrees F.

Put the butter/margarine, sugars and the 200g/7oz golden syrup into a saucepan.

Heat on a medium heat, stirring occasionally until all the buter has melted. Stir it occasionally as it melts. Put to one side and allow to cool for a minimum of 10 minutes.

In a small bowl or a jug, beat the egg and milk together.

Sift the flour into a large bowl. Add the egg and milk mixture and the melted sugars to the flour. Beat together until combined in a smooth cake batter.

Pour the golden syrup sponge cake mixture into your lined loaf tin. It will be quite runny and look rather unappetising. but don’t panic! This is ok and it will turn out fine.

The original recipe says to bake for “around 1 hour”. My oven always tends towards the hot end of the scale, so I checked on my cake after 45 minutes. The cake had risen and turned golden brown. I stuck a knife into the middle and it came out clean. So I turned the oven off and left it in there for another 10 minutes, just to be on the safe side.

I’d advise checking on the cake from about 40 minutes onwards, depending on whether your oven tends to be hopeless or a burner!

Leave your golden syrup cake to cool in the tin for at least 10 minutes before lifting it out of the tin and transferring it to a wire rack.

Golden syrup glaze/drizzle

You have two options here:

After the cake has cooled for 10 mintues, poke the cake all over the top with a knife or skewer, pour the 2 tbsp golden syrup over the cake and spread over the top of the cake using the back of the spoon. The cake will still be warm enough to encourage the syrup to spread.

Alternatively, leave the cake to cool for longer. Put the 2 tbsp golden syrup in the microwave for 30-50 seconds (depending on the power of your microwave) until it is very runny. Poke the cake as before and pour the runny syrup all over it. This is how opted to glaze the cake. I also peeled the baking paper away from the sides of the cake, but left the cake standing on the paper while I glazed it to minimise mess (see following picture to understand what I’m talking about).

The original recipe says to leave to cool completely before serving. However, I have 2 ravenous young customers in this house and they couldn’t wait, so we had our first slice while the cake was still warm and it was absolutely delicious.

A slice of this golden syrup sponge cake served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream is also brilliant as a dessert.

To store, wrap the golden syrup cake in greaseproof paper or tinfoil and put in an airtight container in a cool dry place. The flavour will get more intense if you can leave it 2-3 days before you eat it. Good luck with that! The cake should keep well for up to 5 days.

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And if you’re looking for other recipes featuring golden syrup:

 

 

Old school jam and cornflake tart.

 

 

 

Quick and easy golden syrup cookies.

 

 

 

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Claire Huston / Art and Soul