Father's Day Gingerbread

This is the second ginger cake I've made this year and both were for my Dad. In January I made him a stem ginger cake with a lemon drizzle. This time, for Father's Day, I wanted to do something a bit more simple. No making my own stem ginger, no making a lemon drizzle. Just mix some ingredients here and there and still get a moist and fragrant ginger cake. I got this recipe from Delia Smith: Dark Jamaican Gingerbread. I multiplied the recipe by 1.5 because it didn't look like an ingredients list that would feed six - and I was right. Although the original recipe says 1 large egg, I used 2 small eggs to balance it all out. Changed the method only slightly, but due to error following the method. It wasn't written clearly, but it worked to my favour and here it is.

I began by sifting the plain flour, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl. Once sifted, I left it to the side and got on with the syrup mixture.

To make the syrup mixture, I got a medium pot, poured in my water, placed in the butter, muscovado sugar, golden syrup and black treacle. A trick to ensure a quick golden syrup and black treacle transfer (or any thick sticky substance) is to brush a light amount of vegetable oil, or any flavourless oil you have, into your measuring apparatus. When ready for your transfer into your pot, bowl or whatever, it slides off with ease, it's brilliant! And of course, I got it from Nigella!

So back to my pot, I put on the heat and gently melted everything while constantly stirring. I made sure not to let it boil at all.  

When everything became one melted mixture, I poured it into the flour and spice mixture and mixed it together until a thick chocolate brown mixture formed. I then added the milk and stirred this in. It smelt wonderful; the ginger was really coming out.

Lastly, I beat in my eggs one at a time and poured it into my lined baking tin. If you have a 2lb loaf tin, please use it as it will give it that authentic gingerbread look. As for my loaf tin, it's very small and the last time I used it, cake spilt everywhere! So I baked this for an hour in a 170 C oven in my normal round cake tin. When ready it had risen to perfection and the kitchen smelt absolutely lush.

This is a cake that will taste even better the next day, so make sure to save yourself a slice to have with coffee or tea in the morning. I am prepared to make this cake again and again just to smell it! Of course it tastes delicious as well. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 263g Plain Flour
• 1 1/2 tbs Ground Ginger         
• 1 1/2 tbs Ground Cinnamon 
• 1/2 a Nutmeg, grated
• 3/4 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda  
• 113ml Water
• 113g Butter
• 113g Black Treacle
• 113g Golden Syrup
• 3 tbs Milk
• 2 Small Eggs