I made this cake on Sunday as a way to finish off the ginger I had left-over from the Howondaland Curry. The recipe comes from Epicurious.com, and I’ve had it stored in my personal recipe box there for quite a while as it seemed like a promising taste combination.

Alas, this just didn’t work. I should have thrown it away after the batter seemed to curdle irretrievably after stirring in the blended ginger-sugar mixture. Things went further downhill once the lemon juice was stirred in. Astonishingly, neither the lemon nor the ginger flavour came through properly. An entirely new flavour seemed to have been created, and I’m not sure that I like it.

The texture was a problem too: crumbly with coarse crumbs rather than the fine, dense crumb that pound cake should have. The glaze was the best thing about the cake, although, how wrong can you go with icing sugar and lemon juice?

I’m probably being overly harsh though. Dave says that he really likes the cake and he didn’t have any problems with any lingering aftertastes or the texture. Maybe I should have sent him off to work with the remainder!

Lemon-Ginger Pound Cake, from Epicurious.com

For cake
3 tablespoons finely chopped peeled fresh ginger
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup whole milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
2 tablespoons finely grated fresh lemon zest
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

For glaze
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Special equipment: a 4- to 5-cup nonstick bundt, kugelhopf, or loaf pan

Make cake: Preheat oven to 325�F. Generously butter pan, then flour it, knocking out excess. Chill 10 minutes.

Finely grind together fresh ginger and 1/4 cup sugar in a food processor (mixture will be wet).

Whisk together flour, baking powder, ground ginger, and salt.

Stir together milk and vanilla in a small bowl.

Beat together butter, remaining 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, and zest in a large bowl with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.

Alternately add flour and milk mixtures to butter and eggs in 4 batches, beginning with flour and mixing at low speed until each batch is just incorporated. Mix in ginger sugar until just combined, then lemon juice.

Spoon batter into pan, smoothing top, and bake in middle of oven until golden brown on top and a tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes (about 1 hour for loaf pan). Carefully loosen edges with a knife and immediately invert cake onto a rack to cool completely.

Make glaze: Gradually add confectioners sugar to 1 tablespoon lemon juice, whisking until smooth and adding more juice, 1 drop at a time, if glaze is too thick. Drizzle decoratively over top of cake.