Gingerbread (cake) is the perfect sweet/spicy dessert for fall and winter, flavored by a ‘strange lumpy little root’. I recall my mother baking gingerbread cake for our supper dessert. She would serve it warm with farm fresh whipped cream. For lack of a better expression, ‘it was to die for’. Strangely enough, I was never fond of molasses but certainly enjoyed that warm gingerbread cake!?
Gingerbread has been baked in Europe for centuries. In some places it was soft, delicately spiced cake, in others, a crisp, flat cookie. Then in other places, warm, thick, dark squares of bread served with lemon sauce or whipped cream.
At first, gingerbread was made with breadcrumbs and sweetened with honey, but as it made its way throughout the world it has been adapted to meet the taste of different cultures. In North America, along with the ground ginger we usually like to add cinnamon, and cloves. Molasses is usually labeled as ‘sulphured’ or ‘unsulphured’ depending on whether sulphur was used in the processing. The unsulphured molasses is lighter in color and tends to have a nicer flavor.
Brion does not remember ever eating gingerbread cake?? I’m going to try to bring back the taste of a memory with this classic little cake and see what he thinks.
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- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup butter,
- 1 egg
- 1 cup molasses, unsulphured
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp ginger
- 1 tsp cloves
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup applesauce
- 1 cup hot water
Ingredients
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- Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a 9-inch square baking dish with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, cream together sugar & butter until lightened in color & fluffy. Beat in egg, molasses, applesauce & hot water until fully combined.
- In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger & cloves. Whisk into wet ingredients, mixing ONLY until blended.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes until cake springs back when touched or a knife inserted comes our clean.
- Recipe from dinnerthandessert.com