Ginger Cake With Ginger Cream

Photo: flickr user hfb

Ingredients

4 Eggs separated

3/4 cup Sugar plus

2 tablespoons Sugar

1/2 teaspoon Vanilla

1 pch Salt

3/4 cup Flour

1 teaspoon Powdered ginger

4 tablespoons Unsalted butter melted, cooled to room temperature

Ginger Syrup see * Note

1 cup Heavy cream

1/4 cup Sugar

2 tablespoons Finely-chopped candied ginger

8 Mint sprigs

8 smalls pieces Candied ginger

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 350. Butter and flour a 9-inch cake pan.

Combine the egg yolks and 3/4 cup of sugar in a mixing bowl, and whisk until thick and light in color. Stir in the vanilla. Beat the egg whites and salt with an electric mixer until they form soft peaks. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar, and beat until glossy, 15 to 20 seconds more. Incorporate 1/3 of the whites into the egg mixture. Combine the flour and the ginger, mix well. Then sift 1/4 cup of flour mixture over the egg mixture, and gently fold it in with a spatula. Repeat, folding in whites and flour mixture until the last of the batch of flour is nearly incorporated. Then

Meanwhile, whip the sugar and cream until soft peaks form. Remove the cake from the pan, and place on a pretty plate. Using a pastry brush, moisten the cake with the Ginger Syrup. Fold the finely-chopped ginger into the whipped cream, and ice the cake with the cream. Decorate with candied ginger and mint. Dust with powdered sugar.