Ring the changes with Gingerbread Cake

Gingerbread Cake

It’s a tradition in Yorkshire to eat Parkin - a sort of Ginger cake with oatmeal on Bonfire Night in November - but we’re great fans of ginger at any time of year. Here’s an old recipe from Grandma’s collection with plenty of ginger to spice things up for the new year. Ring the changes with this easy recipe. 

Gingerbread Cake

4 oz/110g butter

4 oz/110g black treacle

4 oz/110g golden syrup

¼/150ml pint milk

2 eggs

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

4 oz/110g plain flour

4 oz/110g wholewheat flour

2 oz/50g soft light brown sugar

2 tsps mixed spice

3oz/75g ground ginger

2oz/50g chopped crystallized ginger

Preheat the oven to 300F, Mark 2, 160C. Grease and line an 8 inch/21cm square cake tin. Place the butter in a saucepan with the black treacle and golden syrup and heat gently until the butter has melted. Then take the pan from the heat and stir in the milk. Beat the eggs and add these to the mixture too. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, then stir the syrup liquid into the flour mixture. When it is smoothly blended, pour the mixture into the prepared tin and scatter the crystallised ginger pieces on top. Bake in the centre of the oven for 1 ¼ -1 ½ hours or until the gingerbread begins to shrink away slightly from the sides of the tin and the centre is springy. Cool in the tin for about 10 minutes, cut into squares and store in a tin.

Meryl says : This is a moist cake and keeps beautifully. You can add 2oz/50g sultanas or raisins to the mixture.