Warrior Beetle: Maple on the Brain

I am overdue in posting! I know I know I know. The four of you who read this must have been absolutely FRANTIC for the next installment. To you, my dedicated followers, I apologise. I can only say that MAINE HAPPENED and we all know what happens in Maine . . . no, not that . . .

What happens in Maine tends to be that you float off into a pine-scented wonderland, eat yourself into a fish coma, and spend your days freezing, damp-bordering-on-wet, and blowing your nose every three seconds.

In other words. IDEAL UNIVERSE.

Who cares if you can't feel your feet? IT'S TOO AWESOME FOR FEET.

So I had to come down from my balsam cloud. And when I did I realised I had maple syrup on the brain. Obviously, this is a direct result of MAINE, source of all that is good and sweet and delicious in this world (although it should be noted that neither of us ate blueberry pancakes the ENTIRE TIME so the maple-on-the-brain-thing is more by osmosis than anything else . . . I can't eat them because they are not Beetle Friendly and Mum doesn't because . . . she thinks pancakes that aren't Swedish pancakes are tasteless and sucky.)

le sigh. Lactose tolerance is so wasted on some people.

So. Maple Syrup. Or more specifically. Maple Ginger Tea Cake.

MAPLE GINGER TEA CAKE

MAPLE GINGER COFFEE CAKE

MAPLE GINGER CAKE THAT CAN BE ENJOYED WITH EITHER TEA OR COFFEE

You can tell if a home is a proper Yankee one in a very simple test. Open the cupboard. Is there a jug of maple syrup in there? If so, you're in good hands. If not, leave immediately. Obviously I didn't have to check our cupboards before I started baking. What I did have to do was decide which jug of maple syrup to use.

RepreSENT.

I smashed a few recipes together here because I wanted to add crystallised ginger (I mean, why NOT add ginger, and also, it pairs very nicely with maple, being warming and spicy and generally a delightful thing.) and I wanted to make an afternoon cake rather than a cake cake (hence the loaf pans). And I only iced it very thinly with a Maple Confectioner's Icing because covering it with Maple Buttercream or Maple Cream Cheese frosting would have completely defeated the purpose of making a maple syrup cake and studding it with bits of ginger. You'd just get a mouthful of frosting and the entirety of the cake would be rendered "additional". There's a time and a place, dear reader, don't get me wrong. But a good Yankee, above all else, understands the vital power of restraint.

Have you been to Plymouth Plantation? We invented restraint.

Ginger makes everything better.

MAPLE GINGER CAKE

1 stick butter
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups maple syrup
3 eggs
1 tbs (yes, a tablespoon) baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp ground ginger
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups (roughly) chopped crystallised ginger

Beat the butter, maple syrup, and eggs together until creamy. Beat in the milk and the vanilla.

In bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and ginger. Add in batches to the wet ingredients, mixing well after each one.

Stir in the chopped ginger until it's all evenly distributed. That being said, if someone happens to get a mouthful of crystallised ginger . . . not really the end of the world.

Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour, maybe a bit longer depending on how big your loaf pans are. (Mine are 9 x 5 incidentally.) The tops should be nice and brown and pulling away from the pan, etc. You know the drill.

After about minutes turn them out onto a rack and let cool completely.

FOR THE MAPLE ICING

Mix 1 cup of confectioner's sugar with 2 tbs of maple syrup and whisk it all together. Add more syrup or more sugar until it's at the right consistency, but aim for the very scientific measure of viscosity known as "nice and thick."

When the cakes are cool go ahead and spread it on the tops. Then feel free to consume the rest before washing out the bowl. I did.

Waste Not. Want Not.

I can report that the Lovely Librarians sampled it with both tea AND coffee and reported back that either hot beverage is acceptable. Thanks, guys! You always have my back.

I also gave half the second loaf to our all-purpose and all-amazing handyman, dropping it off inside his front porch like a little Maple Elf and driving quickly away. He called to say thanks and that it was good, so at least now I don't feel so bad about asking him to fix the wonky lamp on the dining room table.

I was experimenting with the the cooking time here, so I was a bit apprehensive when I sliced into it and did say a quick prayer to the gods of New England that it wouldn't be a) gooey and raw or b) rock hard. But it slices really well, rendering it even more appropriate for a tea/coffee break.