Blog steal: Gingerbread

Is it weird that I’ve never made gingerbread before? I don’t mean icing gingerbread men or decorating a gingerbread house. I mean baking gingerbread, that dark, sticky, spicy, Christmassy cake. Could it be because I’m Canadian? I don’t think of gingerbread looming large in a chilly Canadian December – to me gingerbread cake is an exceptionally English Christmas treat. I could be wrong, of course. Where are you from? Do you make gingerbread?

For a first attempt I’d say I did pretty well. The reason being that I went straight to that source of culinary excellence, Smitten Kitchen. A Smitten Kitchen recipe very rarely lets me down and this one definitely didn’t. The cake is really gutsy (I doubt it would be high on a four year old’s list of favourite things to eat) so if you’re one of those people who doubles the spices in recipes, you’ll love this cake.

You can find more recipes at barbara-luijckx.com

The one thing that could be improved, I think, is its moistness. Don’t get me wrong, the cake is moist, but I like my gingerbread to have almost a wettish, pudding-like consistency. (A lovely lemon and sugar glaze doused over the cake would also not go amiss – I love the way light lemon complements deep, dark gingerbread.)

If you, like me, are a gingerbread neophyte, I urge you to go for it. Or if you’re an old hand, tell me about your favourite recipe! I’m all ears.

Gramercy Tavern’s Gingerbread

Recipe at Smitten Kitchen