Recipe: Long Run Cake

I love baking this cake as it's minimum effort for lots of taste. Porridge oats have slow-release energy making this a great cake to eat the night before a long run. With custard, natch.

Foofy photo courtesy of blokey

When my longer runs become even longer for ultra training I'm also going to try taking it along with me as an energy boost.

You will need:

A 6 inch cake tin, greased with butter then lined with baking parchment (bottom and sides).
Preheat your oven to 150 degrees C.

Ingredients:

100g porridge oats
40g treacle
80g unsalted butter (salted butter will dry out your cake)
55g plain flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of freshly grated or ground ginger
A pinch of ground cinnamon
100g light muscovado sugar
40g dark muscovado sugar
150ml whole milk

Because there are no eggs in this recipe it's important to use whole milk and not semi skimmed or otherwise. This is because the fat content in the milk will act as the agent that sets the air bubbles in the first 20 minutes of baking and prevent a collapsed cake.

Method:

Melt the butter and treacle in a pan with the milk on a low heat, stirring occasionally. Whilst your mixture is melting sift the flour, baking powder, ginger (if you're using the ground / powdered kind) and cinnamon into a large mixing bowl. If you're using grated ginger pop it into the sifted ingredients after sifting.

Add the sugars and porridge oats and mix well.

When your butter, treacle and milk have become liquid mix it into the flour / oats and mix together with a wooden spoon or spatula. Pour into your cake tin, put it straight into the centre of the oven and bake for 45 minutes. Don't be tempted to open the oven door until near the end of the bake as sudden lowering of the oven temperature before the fat has bound the cake will cause it to collapse.

At the 45 minute point, stick a skewer into the middle of the cake - if it comes out clean it's ready to take out. Pop the tin on a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before removing the tin and the parchment.

Worcester sauce not included...

If you're baking two cakes at the same time, double up on all of the ingredients except the baking powder or you may get too much rise, causing a volcano-type effect, causing your cake to break open at the top. Also, heat the oven to 160 degrees for two cakes and bring down to 150 after half an hour.

Your cake should keep for a good 5 days in an airtight container or wrapped in cling film but let's be honest, it's small and it tastes nice so it won't make it that far.

Enjoy!