Phyllis's Gingerbread Cake {Recipe}

It's young ginger season again at Swainway Urban Farm! We love growing this beautiful tropical plant and enjoying the mild, clean flavor of the young ginger.

Last year some time, my mom mentioned my Grandma Phyllis's ginger bread recipe. We didn't eat it much growing up so I adapted it with our fresh young ginger and whole ingredients to try. Here's a cake I can love!

I've made this dark, molasses-sweetened cake several times since, including at a recent Seasoned Farmhouse class. Everyone enjoyed the simple, rich flavors.

This gingerbread easy to make, requiring no stand mixer and few dishes. Freshly whipped cream lightens and smooths the rich flavors. Try this recipe for the holidays or any time you want a special autumnal treat.

Grandma Phyllis's Gingerbread Cake

Makes: 8x8" cake, approximately 9 servings Time: 45 minutes

1/4 cup unsalted butter + extra for greasing pan 1/4 cup white sugar 1/2 cup molasses 1 egg 1 small thumb young ginger, grated 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 3/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon cloves 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup hot water Whipped cream, sweetened and flavored to your liking, optional but highly recommended.

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. 2. Butter an 8x8 glass baking pan and set aside. 3. Melt butter in small sauce pan, allow to cool slightly. 4. Transfer butter to a medium bowl. Add sugar, molasses, egg, and ginger and whisk together until smooth. 5. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Meanwhile, heat water. 6. Alternately add flour mixture and hot water to butter mixture, stirring until smooth after each addition. 7. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until cake tester inserted in middle comes clean. Allow to cool before serving with freshly whipped cream.

Healthy Snack Cake

The other day I noticed a little bit of homemade applesauce and some home-pureed pumpkin leftover in the fridge. I wanted to make something with them before they went bad. Five year old Lil and I had just made muffins for a meal so we wanted something a little different and came up with this cake. The batter is made in a single bowl for easy cleanup. Kids are great helpers for this recipe because there are no special techniques - just measure, dump in the ingredients and mix.

The ingredient list is adaptable to any fruit puree you might have around including pearsauce, applesauce, mashed banana or pumpkin puree. If baking with a child, ask them which spices they would like to match with the fruits used. Take their suggestions and you might both be surprised by how lovely a new combination tastes.

With minimal fat and extra fiber from the whole wheat flour and fruit, this is a cake I don't mind serving as a snack.

[print_this]Snack Cake

10 minutes cooking, 20-25 minutes baking

makes 9 servings

3/4 cup fruit puree (applesauce, mashed banana, pear sauce, pumpkin puree, etc.)

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/4 cup King Arthur white whole wheat flour

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup softened butter

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon sweet spices such as cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg or a mixture

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 egg

1. Add all ingredients to a stand mixer bowl or large bowl.

2. Mix with a hand mixer or stand mixer on low for 30 seconds.

3. Increase speed to high and mix for three minutes.

4. Pour into buttered and floured 8x8 inch pan.

5. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

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Frigidare just launched a family friendly website Make Time for Change. In addition to sharing recipes and tips on cooking with kids, they are donating $1 to Save the Children for all new visits to their site. Frigidare and my ad network, Foodbuzz, are donating an additional $50 for this post. Score for Save the Children!

Added to Hearth and Soul Volume 32.

Our Family Doesn't Buy Cakes

Sweet Lil turns five today.  I have no words to summarize my complex feelings about being her mother, nor reflections on her growing maturity and beauty.  Where to turn, then, but to food?

The setting: Mother and daughter are walking through an unfamiliar grocery store.

Mother, reading list: spaghetti, Parmesan.  Where's the Parmesan? Daughter: Can I have a...

Mother, interrupting: Oh here it is.  We're going to use already shredded cheese at your spaghetti birthday party because it will be easier.  Ok?

Daughter: Uh huh.

Mother: Now, lunch meat.  Do you really think you would eat lunch meat at school?

Daughter, spying the bakery case of decorated cakes: Hey, we could just buy a cake!

Mother: Our family doesn't buy cakes.

Daughter: Why?

Mother: Um, it's just not something we do.  We like to make them ourselves.

Daughter: But those are painted!  Can we paint mine?

Mother: Not really. Ours will taste better, though.  Do you still want decorations from the cake store?

Characters move on to other shopping.

Lil was beaming as we sang happy birthday around her homemade, not-from-a-box-or-a-store cake. Devie tasted not a morsel, unlike last year's thievery. The chocolate on chocolate cake was a sweet end to a lovely party for our new five year old.

Does your family buy cakes? Do I really have a five year old kid already?

The Birthday Cake Hound

This is a picture of Devorguilla, aka Devie, aka big hound, in 2002. It was just after we moved to Norfolk Virginia in our first house. I had not yet found work and we were extended beyond our means. But it was Alex's birthday, so I baked a German Chocolate Cake from scratch.

Devie found the cake and ate at least half. If you didn't know Devie then you wouldn't know that she normally had a huge chest and tiny waist. This picture only shows a very full tummy.

Devie did not die, although some dogs do from excess chocolate inhalation. At the time, I had such anger in me that I felt I wouldn't have minded if she did keel over.

For the intervening eight years, Devie has always been around when there is food and continues to put front feet on the counter to steal what morsels she can.

Yesterday we were outside visiting with friends. I heard the tell tale 'clack' of Devie's nails on the kitchen floor. It took only a second until I remembered Lil's birthday chocolate cake cooling beside the stove.

Ack!!! Devie had eaten into half of it. Damn dog and damn my leaving it in reach.

On our evening walk, we stopped by the local market to purchase more cocoa for another cake.

When we got out the butter to make another cake, guess who was ready at the mixer?

Yep. And later, when we were icing it?

Finally our twice-made chocolate cake with chocolate frosting was decorated with butterfly rings and served at Lillian's fourth birthday party. Happy birthday, my dear girl! May the Birthday Cake Hound never strike on your special day again