Gingerbread of the Gingeriest Proportions (Wheat Free)

I will admit: the fluffy blue teddy isn't what one would associate with a die-hard metal fan, but the
gingerbread was made for a church event entitled 'Teddy Bear Parachute Jumping Contest'. Don't ask: Church of Ireland people have these vagueries.

And no: it isn't chocolate, this is traditional treacle gingerbread. Usually baked in loaf form as a tea bread, this sticky sweet treat is very heavy going and best enjoyed in small doses, due to its rich, dense texture and its almost palette-abusing amount of spices. Of course, the spiciness can be adjusted to taste, but this is a recipe I have altered over time to yield an intense taste experience. I like to eat this spread with real butter with a nice cuppa shcald, but you can enjoy this like a cake if you prefer; I actually made this in traybake form for the church event, not in loaf form.

I also like to have a sticky glaze on my gingerbread, which calls upon an unusual ingredient: Coca-Cola. Before you say anything, don't knock it! Coca-Cola is flavoured with a unique blend of spices and herbal extracts, and its zingy flavour works well with the spiciness of the gingerbread.

The list of ingredients may seem daunting, but it's like literally any tea bread: mix the dry ingredients in a bowl, mix the wet ingredients in a bowl, then mix the wet into the dry. Only, the wet ingredients are mixed in a saucepan in this one and the eggs are added last.

This recipe is adapted from Tate and Lyle Refineries' book Sweet Success, published in 1977.

INGREDIMENTS:
This makes one 8x4 inch (21x10 centimeter) loaf, or one 10 inch (25 centimeter) square cake

Dry ingredients:

• 7 ounces (200 grammes) spelt flour
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) cornflour
• ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon ground mixed spice
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon dried chili flakes
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Wet ingredients:

• 6 ounces (170 grammes) golden syrup
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) treacle
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) soft brown sugar
• 4 ounces (140 grammes) butter
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) root ginger, grated finely
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) crystalised ginger, cut finely
• 6 fluid ounces (170 milliliters) warm water
• 2 medium eggs

For the glaze:

• 1 tablespoon golden syrup, or stem ginger syrup if you can find it
• 1 tablespoon caster sugar
• 2 fluid ounces hot water
• 2 fluid ounces Coca-Cola

HOW-TO

• Preheat the oven to 160°C (325°F, Gas Mk.3, or very moderate).
• Prepare your tin of choice by greasing and flouring, or lining with baking paper. I use silicone-greased paper, but waxed paper works just as well; greaseproof paper needs to be greased.
• Put all the wet ingredients, except the eggs, into a saucepan and cook over medium-low heat until the sugar and butter have melted and it has formed an even mixture. Allow to cool enough for it not to scramble the eggs later.
• Sieve all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
• Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients from the saucepan. Mix together gently with a spatula, wooden spoon or balloon whisk.
• Add in the eggs and beat vigorously until well combined and smooth. 
• Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and cook for 30 to 35 minutes. It's done when it's springy to the touch and a cocktail stick or skewer stuck into the thickest part comes out clean or with one or two crumbs stuck to it. About 5 minutes before it's due out of the oven, start preparing the glaze if you want to use it.
• To make the glaze, put all the glaze ingredients into a small saucepan and heat slowly, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Bring to the boil, then remove from the heat.
• Skewer the cake while it's still hot and pour on the glaze even over the surface. Return to the oven for another 2 minutes to set the glaze slightly.
• If you have glazed the cake, allow to cool completely in the tin before taking out and serving; if you haven't glazed it, you can take out of the tin when it is cool enough to handle and allow to cool completely on a wire rack. 

The texture of this bread is second to none, and it is sinfully moist. As nice as it is eaten while still warm from the oven, it's best to leave it overnight before cutting. This way, all the spices have time to breathe and release their flavours into the cake.

Different Sponge Cake Flavours (no April Fool, it's after 12pm)

Yes, it is April Fool's day, but I got up late today and thus missed the 12pm cut-off for practical jokes. Although, not many people know this is a rule.

And so, we move onto how to flavour the basic sponge cake recipe. Last week I uploaded a blog on a coffee cake, so I thought I'd be kind an tell people how to make the normal vanilla flavour sponge into a coffee sponge, and various other kinds of sponge. In the picture, there is a vanilla cake, a coffee cake and a chocolate cake for sake of demonstration.

The following changes are specifically for the three-egg quantity as explained in the basic sponge cake recipe. If you've changed the amount of cake mixture, the alterations will need to be changed accordingly. To jog your memory, here is the recipe again.

• 4 ounces (115 grammes) white spelt flour

• 2 ounces (55 grammes) cornflour

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 3 medium eggs, at room temperature

• 4½ ounces (130 grammes) caster sugar

• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence (preferably the pure and natural kind)

• 1½ ounces salted butter (if lactose intolerant, see notes); if using unsalted, add ¼ teaspoon of salt to the flour.

• 1½ ounces sunflower oil

• 3 tablespoons (45 milliliters) hot water

If you want an orange, lemon or other citrus cake, take 1 whole citrus and grate off its zest. You want only the orange or yellow outer layer of skin, not any of the white bit underneath – known as pith – because it’s very bitter. Add this to the eggs and sugar before beating. Instead of the hot water, add the same amount of the citrus juice or a mixture of citrus juice and hot water if you want a less intense flavour.

If you would like a chocolate cake, replace 1 ounce of the white flour (not corn flour) with 1 ounce of cocoa powder. Because coca powder is very dry, add an additional tablespoon of hot water. This makes a very rich, dark chocolate cake, so if you don’t like it as dark you can reduce the substitution, or use hot drinking chocolate power, which is sweeter. Also, for a fudgier taste, you can replace half of the caster sugar with soft brown sugar, or even a mixture of caster sugar, brown sugar and golden syrup. Only replace 1 ounce of sugar with golden syrup, though, otherwise weird things happen.

If you would like a coffee cake, replace the milk with the same amount of very strong black coffee, either made with instant espresso powder or from a filter. If you want even more coffeeness, you can replace 2 teaspoons of the white flour with ground coffee beans, or replace the vanilla essence with coffee essence, or both if you’re truly coffee mad.

For toffee or caramel cake, simply replace the caster sugar with soft dark brown sugar, and then also replace one ounce of the sugar with one ounce of golden syrup (only 1 ounce, as aforementioned). If you can get it, you can use butter-vanilla flavouring instead of the vanilla essence; I managed to get a few vials of such flavouring from Lidl, and it adds a lovely note.

For any kind of berry or soft fruit cake, such as strawberry, banana or raspberry, replace the water with the same quantity of fruit purée. You can make this by squidging fresh or defrosted frozen fruit through a sieve. For extra special fruitiness, you can replace one ounce of sugar with the same quantity of fruit jam put through a sieve.

For coconut cake, replace 1 ounce of the plain white flour with desiccated coconut, and the water with the same quantity of coconut milk or juice. In Ireland, coconut milk comes in both liquid and solid form, so if you can only get your hands on solid form, dissolve it in hot water to make up to the quantity needed. Coconut cake is one of my especial favourites, especially with nice pillowy icing on it.

For spiced cake, you don’t need to replace flour with spices, you just add the spices to your dry ingredients at the beginning and sieve them as well. I tend to add a maximum of 2-3 teaspoons total of ground spices, whether you want to add 2-3 teaspoons of one spice (which is quite extreme), or a mixture of spices that amounts to 2-3 teaspoons (as in ½ a teaspoon of cinnamon, ½ a teaspoon of ginger, ¼ a teaspoon of coriander, et cetera).

For Queen cakes, which is basically a vanilla fairy cake with dried fruit in, just add 3 ounces of raisins or currants - tossed well in flour - to the mixture. You could also add chocolate chips for chocolate chip cakes, or even chopped crystallised ginger.

A nice idea for children’s parties (especially little girls) is to add 2 tablespoons of hundreds and thousands. This will make the cake spotty on the inside. Don't use dragées, as they are big and crunchy to find in a delicate little cake.

When adding colouring to your mixture, you can use either gel or liquid colouring, just not powder; it doesn't mix in properly. You can add up to 1 fluid ounce of liquid colour before a) the mixture starts to get too thin, or b) the colour is frightening deep/dark/nuclear. I don't really go in for colouring the actual cake, though, as I like to leave the cake natural and get my colour hit through the icing.

So go forth, and flavour!