McVities Ginger Cake Sticky Pudding Cake Review

Years ago mum would buy a McVities Ginger Cake as a special treat – I loved them – and when I was out browsing the shops for a cake for my birthday the other week, I found myself drawn towards them for nostalgic reasons and additionally picked up one of these little treats.

The whole packet allegedly makes 8 slices.  Unfortunately my eyes got a bit bigger than my belly and I sliced it into three large chunks.

Cooking instructions are “just a guide” in my world – and I’d intended to use the cake partly as cake and partly as a trifle, by adding fruit, jelly and custard.  The cooking instructions to warm up one slice, 1/8th of the packet, say the following:

Cooking McVities Ginger Cake:

• For one slice, pre-heat a conventional oven to Gas Mark 4, 180°C or 160°C for a fan-assisted oven.
• Place one slice on a shallow baking tray and bake in the oven for 5 minutes.

Now, I think anybody can spot the flaw in these cooking instructions!  Would anybody really turn on a whole oven and pre-heat it just for ONE small slice of cake?  I think not.

I sliced my cake into three parts and microwaved the first 1/3rd in a microwave safe bowl for about 30 seconds just to warm it through.

It is very “sticky”, but probably not in a good way; more of a “sticks to your spoon” sticky than a moist sticky.  What I did notice was that taste-wise the Jamaica Ginger cake simply didn’t have that “zing” I remembered from my childhood. The colour was darker than I remembered.  I suspect this isn’t the original recipe Jamaica Ginger Cake we used to have, to be honest.

Later on I also ate the next two thirds, one of them cold. I’m afraid that happens once a packet is opened!

Overall, I was disappointed, although, for the price, it wasn’t a poor choice.  It can be served with hot custard, as a hot dessert, which is how I’d usually serve something like this.

However – I had bought it intending to make a trifle, so I will now have to buy another one, then use a slice or two as a trifle cake base.

I Recommend: 

Fine to buy and try; I’d buy another one.  I might try oven baking it in my toaster oven at some point – without pre-heating the oven.  I’d just place it on a small folded piece of foil with the toaster oven shelf on the top position and just use the top element (that’s the top grill part) and I’d set the toaster oven temperature to 160°C.

I’ll let you know how I get on when it becomes Jamaica Ginger Cake Trifle … which should be before the end of the year.