all the gin + a grapefruit and gin cake

Home Baked - Winter

If you were to ask visitors to Hobart what they were planning on doing while they were in the city, high on the list for many people would be to visit Salamanca Markets. The markets are something of a Hobart institution and are one of Tasmania’s most visited tourist attractions. They were started in late 1971 when a trial market was held with six stalls. Deemed a success, some seven months after the initial trial, a permanent market was established. At first, it operated only during the summer months, starting four weeks before Christmas and running until Easter. By 1975, a winter market was also operating, and by 1977, it had grown considerably, with many stallholders attending on a regular basis. Those six stalls grew to the 300 that now set up each Saturday, all year round, lining Salamanca and further up the street, attracting between 25,000 and 40,000 visitors every week. To be honest, it is mostly a tourist thing. I visit perhaps once a year, really, to see what might be new, but the crowds quickly remind me why I don’t go more regularly.

Salamanca Markets Source: Brand Tasmania

Despite the reluctance of locals to visit, it truly is a fabulous market that showcases some of the best Tasmania has to offer. Crafts, art, books, tourism operators, and, of course, food - from the ready-to-eat to the take-home variety. It’s actually a good trend barometer, not on a week-to-week basis, but over a longer period of time, you get a sense for what’s in and what’s not.

More recently it seems that every second stall is selling spirits of some kind. For a State that at one time eschewed the distilling of spirits, it was outlawed in 1839, when Lady Jane Franklin, the wife of the governor, stated, “I would prefer barley fed to the pigs than it used to turn men into swine”, things have gone full circle. Tasmania’s love affair with spirits is relatively recent. The distillation ban remained in place until the 1990s when Hobart surveyor Bill Lark wondered why no one in Tasmania was making whiskey and set about having the law overturned.

Now, some thirty years later, Tasmania is home to more than 70 distilleries. The whiskies are made entirely from Tasmanian ingredients, pure air and water, peat and locally grown grain and have resulted in international awards for a number of distillers. While Lark Distillery has moved to much larger premises just outside of Hobart, the cellar door is located on Hobart’s waterfront, not far from Salamanca Markets, and you can enjoy music, a warm fire and whiskey, and while away a winter hour or two.

Gin makers followed the whiskey makers and there are now well over 130 artisan gins available across the state. In a similar way to the whiskey makers, distillers of Tasmanian gin are able to utilise the pure water and cool climate to make world class gin. Tasmania is also home to over 300 plants that don’t grow anywhere else, and these plants make their way into local gins. While pepperberries, both the berry and the leaf, are popular inclusions, the leaves of the Kunzea, leatherwood flowers, native thyme and wakame seaweed have all found their way into various gins.

For many artisan producers, reducing waste is an important part of their production process, and making the most of by-products results in innovative products. This is the case for Grandvewe Cheese who use the sheep whey resulting from their cheese making and turn it into gin at their Hartshorn Distillery. Similarly, Hellfire Bluff Distillery, who make one of the very few paddock-to-bottle Australian vodkas, are experimenting with their second grade potatoes to make a potato gin.

Also with a stall at Salamanca Markets is the Tasmanian Tonic Company. It makes sense that quality gin deserves quality tonic, and the company has developed a number of tonic water syrups that are low in sugar and made from quinine extracted from chinchona bark to produce tonics with distinctly local flavours such as smoked eucalyptus, leatherwood honey and pepperberry to compliment the local gins.

While the Tasmanian spirit market has been dominated by whiskey and gin, there are signs that distillers are starting to branch out. Locally made vodka and rum is available, along with a variety of liqueurs. If my observations are anything to go by, I think a Tasmanian take on absinthe might be the next big thing!

I use gin a little in my baking, pairing it sometimes with berries; raspberry and gin are a favourite, and I can vouch for this as a great jam combination as well. Surprisingly, a gin caramel tastes distinctly of both gin and caramel and when poured over a relatively plain apple cake, it transforms into something special. More often than not, though, my preferred combination is lemon and gin. The herbal flavours in gin marry well with the sharpness of the lemon. Recently, I’ve been experimenting with grapefruit and gin, and I really like the combination. I have a preference for the old-fashioned yellow grapefruit. It has a tartness that isn’t found in the now very common ruby grapefruit, but they’re not that easy to find. This recipe is a riff on the classic lemon drizzle cake, where I’ve replaced the lemon with grapefruit and incorporated a good glug of gin in the syrup and the glaze. I have also included a small amount of tonic syrup; the smoky eucalyptus one I have compliments the cake well. Obviously, this is a hard-to-come-by ingredient for most of you, so you could substitute some regular tonic water or leave it out completely.

Grapefruit, Gin & Tonic Drizzle Cake

Makes 1, 21 x 13 cm loaf cake

For the cake:

• 200 g plain flour

• 1½ teaspoons baking powder

• 175 g caster sugar

• the zest of 1 large grapefruit

• 200 g salted butter, softened

• 4 eggs

For the syrup:

• 100 g caster sugar

• Juice of 1 large grapefruit

• 2 teaspoons of tonic syrup or 60 ml tonic water (optional)

• 75 ml gin

For the glaze:

• 100 g icing sugar

• 1 tablespoon of gin syrup (above)

• a splash or two of water

Preheat the oven to 170°C. Grease and line a 21 x 13 cm loaf tin with baking paper.

Place the flour and baking powder in a bowl and use a balloon whisk to mix together and remove any lumps.

Put the sugar and grapefruit zest into the bowl of an electric mixer. Rub the zest into the sugar. This will release the oils and accentuate the flavour. Add the butter to the bowl and beat until they are light and fluffy and changed in colour. Add the eggs, one at a time, making sure that each one is incorporated before adding the next. Tip in the flour and mix until combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 45-55 minutes, until the top is golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

While the cake is baking, make the syrup. Put the caster sugar, grapefruit juice and tonic (if using) into a small saucepan. Cook over a low heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Increase the heat to medium and leave to cook until the syrup has reduced by half. Stir in the gin and cook for one more minute.

Remove the cake from the oven and pour over the syrup, reserving one tablespoon of the syrup for the glaze. Leave to cool in the tin.

Make a thin glaze* by mixing the icing sugar with the gin syrup. Add a little water, if necessary, just a bit at a time, to make sure you have the right consistency. This is a thin pouring glaze rather than a thicker icing. Once the cake is cool, remove it from the tin and set it on a wire rack. Pour over the glaze and leave to set before serving. The cake will keep for a few days in an airtight container.

*The classic lemon drizzle cake usually has a topping of sugar and lemon, but I don’t really like the sugary finish, so opt for a thin glaze. You can stick with the traditional if you prefer.

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Next week: the off season + a tropical slice

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Each week, I share the latest instalment of the book I am writing here on Substack, Home Baked: a Year of Seasonal Baking. A subscription will ensure you don’t miss any of the stories and recipes. You might also want to consider a paid subscription, which, until the end of June, is 30% off. A paid subscription will give you access to previous recipes, as well as printer-friendly recipe cards and bonus material. There is also an additional newsletter on Friday, which is a mixed bag and touches on all manner of food topics. I’d love for you to be a part of it.

Paid subscribers will find the printer-friendly recipe card by clicking on the button. You’ll also find a variation on the citrus and gin theme with a recipe for a lemon and gin marmalade.