Sunday, November 14, 2010

Tis The Season For Gingercake

     A standard dessert growing up was my mother's gingerbread.  Soft, damp and slathered with my favorite chocolate icing, it was the smell  and texture of being at the kitchen table with the winds howling  around the apartment building.  The sweet strange smell of a gummy eraser, the  dark atmosphere of the entry way to Nightingale Bamford School for Girl's where I would wait to be picked up at 4 o'clock, the sudden cold shock of air as the doors opened and parents picked up their children-- and then home to a tea of gingerbread and milk.  Mama's opinion
that the molasses was strengthening  allowed second helpings and having one slice already in my belly I could luxuriously draw out the pleasure of the second while putting off homework for a while to sit and watch Mama move like a dancer in the kitchen.

For years I had that recipe, carefully written out in my mother's hand, and made it many times every winter, still choosing to believe that a second piece was good for me.  And then it disappeared. Some move between cities was probably to blame . I have faith that it'll turn up, but in the meantime, this moist rich version is an excellent substitute. It is the Food Network's  recipe with some slight tweaking.


                                                      
                                                       Gingercake


1 cup vegetable oil

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup molasses

3 tablespoons minced crystallized ginger

3 eggs, room temperature

3 cups all purpose flour

1 tablespoon ground ginger

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon each nutmeg and cloves

1 cup boiling water

1 tablespoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 325F

1. Spray a 9 by 12 baking pan with Pam.
2. Mix together in a large bowl the oil, molasses, sugar and ginger. Lightly beat the eggs and add, mixing well.
3.Whisk together the flour, spices and salt and add to molasses mixture-stirring till smooth.
4. Add the baking soda to the boiling water and carefully incorporate it into the batter. Bake about 45  minutes, turning it halfway through baking.

Meanwhile, put one cup brown sugar, 3/4 cup sour cream and 1/2 cup butter into a saucepan and stir over medium heat till smooth. Add 1 tablespoon corn syrup, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda and bring to a boil and allow it to cook for about 6 minutes until thick and syrupy. Off the heat, add 1 tablespoon instant espesso and 1 teaspoon vanilla.

When the cake is baked, allow it to cool for 15 minutes, then poke holes all over the top and, leaving it in its pan, pour the glaze all over it, pushing it gently into the holes.
 .



that the molasses was strengthening  allowed second helpings and having one slice already in my belly I could luxuriously draw out the pleasure of the second while putting off homework for a while to sit and watch Mama move like a dancer in the kitchen.

For years I had that recipe, carefully written out in my mother's hand, and made it many times every winter, still choosing to believe that a second piece was good for me.  And then it disappeared. Some move between cities was probably to blame . I have faith that it'll turn up, but in the meantime, this moist rich version is an excellent substitute. It is the Food Network's  recipe with some slight tweaking.


                                                      
                                                       Gingercake


1 cup vegetable oil

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup molasses

3 tablespoons minced crystallized ginger

3 eggs, room temperature

3 cups all purpose flour

1 tablespoon ground ginger

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon each nutmeg and cloves

1 cup boiling water

1 tablespoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 325F

1. Spray a 9 by 12 baking pan with Pam.
2. Mix together in a large bowl the oil, molasses, sugar and ginger. Lightly beat the eggs and add, mixing well.
3.Whisk together the flour, spices and salt and add to molasses mixture-stirring till smooth.
4. Add the baking soda to the boiling water and carefully incorporate it into the batter. Bake about 45  minutes, turning it halfway through baking.

Meanwhile, put one cup brown sugar, 3/4 cup sour cream and 1/2 cup butter into a saucepan and stir over medium heat till smooth. Add 1 tablespoon corn syrup, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda and bring to a boil and allow it to cook for about 6 minutes until thick and syrupy. Off the heat, add 1 tablespoon instant espesso and 1 teaspoon vanilla.

When the cake is baked, allow it to cool for 15 minutes, then poke holes all over the top and, leaving it in its pan, pour the glaze all over it, pushing it gently into the holes.
 .

12 comments:

  1. Hey Nana, as I don't know you, I can't tell how much you're into sentimental stuff, but: we have in Germany a well-known songwriter who has written some wonderfully melancholic songs, and one describes very poetically what you wrote about your mother's gingerbread.

    It's about childhood memories("Sometimes, I wish it was once again a quarter to seven and I wish I was coming home, and it shall be Saturday and there shall be cake already on the kitchen table, and a pot of hot chocolate and my cup next to it...").

    I listened to that on my way to work this morning after reading your blog and I arrived with red, swollen eyes!! (Have cheered up since then!)

    I have to try you recipe!

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  2. (Gee- where is everyone? Lenka, Natalie, Oz...who am i missing? :-))

    I think I am going to try to make this cake for Thanksgiving...sounds perfect and not overly complicated, which I need! I always loved the City in the fall/winter, so bracing and alive - and what fun to go indoors for a warm treat nowadays though we prefer running in somewhere for a martini!

    Cecile: that song sounds great.

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  3. Is that a Reinhard Mey song? He's great. Nana, I hope you find your recipe, though the love you put into a food like this matters more than measurements of flour and sugar. I'm sure your mother would help herself to two portions :)

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  4. I've got my gingercake baking in the oven right now! Nothing smells like the holidays quite like gingercake... My apartment smells like a little slice of heaven. :)

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  5. Been building the chicken coop for the fresh eggs I'll need to make all these delicious recipes!

    Wonder if The Lady has a chrissy cake recipe she'd like to share with her fans?

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  6. It is a Reinhard Mey song: "Viertel vor Sieben" = "A quarter to seven"!

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  7. Unfortunately, I've never seen molasses in Irkutsk before. And I don't know - what product can relace it... but the gingercake looks so tasty :)

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  8. Okay, my sister and I can only eat so much cake, so I brought this to work and have received SO many compliments!

    Thanks, Nana!

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  9. Natalie - Owl, you can generally use maple syrup for molasses. It won't be the same; but it should still taste good. Replacing the ginger with durian is not recommended unless you're intensely Chinese....

    Haven't been able to try this yet, unfortunately. My poor wrist hasn't recovered from being driven off my bike by an alleged human Breen

    With regards
    Robert

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  10. Filmigirl- I am so happy !!! and there absolutely is nothing like the smell of that cake baking.

    and Oz` what is a chriiy cake?

    and I send good juju to your hurt wrist R

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  11. Universal translator, .au-.us mode:

    "Chrissy"=Christmas cake, Ms V.

    Personally, i wouldn't mind some transcripts of your wonderful vodcasts. My hearing is as fractured as my wrist

    With regards
    Robert

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  12. Nana just finished making well, a crap load of french food, and decided what the hell? Let's make more mess. So I made the ginger cake. OMG I've only started to 'clean the pan' that the glaze was in- and it's soooo good. YUM. The cake poofed up quite nicely. It looks like it might taste good also (I'm always convinced that no matter what anything I make will taste like crap, simply because I made it).

    Just tried a bite. Heavenly. Absolutely heavenly. I think even the people I live with couldn't object.

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