Nutmeg Cake with Citrus Cream Cheese Icing

A few months ago my matey's boss brought him a fresh nutmeg from Grenada. This is of course a truly wonderful thing, the only snag being that no occasion would be good enough to use it. Needing to say a big thank to somebody I decided it was time to use that nutmeg and bake a cake. Taking a recipe from ‘Best Recipes’ as a starting point I upped the flavour and added a cream cheese icing with a citrusy zing. I then discover that the recipient doesn’t like cake, spices or sugar..... Successful? She demanded the recipe and went straight out to get the ingredients.

This is glorious to make as it smells spicy and brown sugary but the thing that really makes this cake wonderful is the almost biscuity base which adds a bit of a crunch and a toffee like chew.

Nutmeg Cake with Citrus Cream Cheese Icing (makes a 23cm cake or a 16cm cake and 12 mini cakes)

Ingredients

473g self-raising flour

473g dark brown sugar – The darker the better as it adds a lot to the flavour and works well with spices.

125 g butter

2 teaspoons mixed spice

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 nutmeg or 2 teaspoons ground nutmeg

1 egg

237ml milk

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180°C and grease and line a cake tin(s). I made one small 16cm cake and 12 mini cakes for ....erm...tasting purposes.

2. Grate half the nutmeg and mix with the flour, sugar and mixed spice.

3. Rub the butter into the dry ingredient s with your fingers, until the mix looks like breadcrumbs

4. Spoon about half the dry mix into the cake tin(s). Spread it out but don't push it down like you would if it were a cheesecake.

5. Grate the other half of the nutmeg into another bowl, and whisk together with the egg and the milk, then add the baking powder. Pour into the remaining dry mixture and mix till smooth and runny.

9. Pour into the tin and bake for an hour. The mini cakes take 20 minutes.

10. Allow to cool in the tin. Don't be tempted to take it out until coolish as the base may well crumble.

It is pretty darn good like this but the orange cream cheese icing finishes it off nicely

Ingredients

100g cream cheese

250g icing sugar

Zest of 1 orange

Method

Mix till smooth and yummy. It will be a bit too runny at this stage so put it in the fridge while the cake cools. Spread roughly over cake so that it starts to drizzle a little down the sides in an Eat Me manner.

This actually tastes better the next day. The icing goes tangy and the base goes all biscuit like and wonderfully odd. It also freezes well so is perfect for cake related emergencies.