Here's a philosophical question for your Tuesday: 'What is Gingerbread?' Mention gingerbread to me and an image of a gingerbread man in his gingerbread house springs to mind. Said gingerbread man running away as fast as he can, being pursued by all manner of hungry beings.
But gingerbread can also be... well, cake! Do you have a different name for this? I call both versions gingerbread, and think they are equally Christmassy. There's just something so festive about the flavour of ginger.
The following recipe works particularly well if frozen - perfect if you want to get ahead on your festive baking, or just like to have something tasty in store in case your great aunt Agatha should drop round for tea. Or Christmas, in which case, you have my full sympathy.
You will need:
4 oz butter
2 oz sugar
2 tbsp golden syrup
2 eggs, beaten
8 oz self raising flour
2 -3 level tsp ground ginger
Heat the oven to 160C. Grease a loaf tin and line the bottom with greaseproof paper. Cream together the butter, sugar and syrup, then gradually beat in the eggs.
Sift together the flour and ginger, then fold into the creamed mixture. Pour into the tin and bake in the oven for 1 1/4 hours, until golden and springy to the touch.
If you want to take the festive spirit further you could add icing to the top of your cake and decorate with pieces of crystalised ginger.
PS: I'd just like to say a whopping thank you for all your lovely comments, tweets, Facebook likes and emails since I opened my Etsy shop last Thursday. The encouragement, feedback, sharing and support has been fantastic, and made me even more excited about this new project. Thank you! x
For me, gingerbread is cake! The other things are ginger biscuits, not cake as far as I'm concerned. Loved iced gingerbread too.
ReplyDeleteLiz @ Shortbread & Ginger
I have a feeling that here in Yorkshire the tendency is to think of the cake as gingerbread too, the others being gingerbread biscuits, or simply 'gingerbread men'. Interesting! x
DeleteI just found your blog and it is great. And I love your gingerbread recipe too. My hubbie really loves these cakes as his mother used to bake it for him all the time when he was young. Here in Ireland we use treacle instead of golden syrup and it really darkens the cake. I must try it now using your recipe. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThank you for following, Rosie, and lovely to meet you! Funny you should mention treacle as I think Yorkshire folk like to use it too for this recipe, though a friend told me that's actually a parkin thing, rather than ginger cake. Strong cultural ideas about a cake!
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